i  V 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


* 


* 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  .  BOMBAY  .  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  .  BOSTON  .  CHICAGO 
DALLAS  .  SAN  FRANCISCO 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 


TORONTO 


THE 


CHILDHOOD  OF  THE 

WORLD 


A  SIMPLE  ACCOUNT  OF 

MAN’S  ORIGIN  AND  EARLY  HISTORY 


BY 

EDWARD  CLODD 


NEW  EDITION,  REWRITTEN  AND  ENLARGED 


\ 


MACMILLAN  AND  CO.,  LIMITED 
ST.  MARTIN’S  STREET,  LONDON 

1 9 1 4 


New  rewritten  and  enlarged  edition 
Copyright,  1914, 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
Set  up  and  electrotyped.  Published  March,  1914 
Reprinted  October ,  1914- 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 


For  the  information  of  parents  and  others  into 
whose  hands  this  book  may  fall,  it  may  be  stated  that 
it  is  an  attempt,  in  the  absence  of  any  kindred  elemen¬ 
tary  work,  to  narrate,  in  as  simple  language  as  the 
subject  will  permit,  the  story  of  man’s  progress  from 
the  unknown  time  of  his  appearance  upon  the  earth, 
to  the  period  from  which  writers  of  history  ordinarily 
begin. 

That  an  acquaintance  with  the  earliest  known  races 
of  man  should  precede  the  study  of  any  single  depart¬ 
ment  of  his  later  history  is  obvious,  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  such  knowledge  has  become  attain¬ 
able  only  within  the  last  few  years,  and  at  present 
enters  but  little,  if  at  all,  into  the  course  of  study  at 
schools. 

Thanks  to  the  patient  and  careful  researches  of  men 
of  science,  the  way  is  rapidly  becoming  clearer  for 
tracing  the  steps  by  which,  at  evervarying  rates  of 
progress,  the  leading  races  have  advanced  from  sav¬ 
agery  to  civilization,  and  for  thus  giving  a  completeness 


VI 


PREFACE  TO  THE  FIRST  EDITION 


to  the  history  of  mankind  which  the  assumptions  of  an 
arbitrary  chronology  would  render  impossible. 

As  the  Table  of  Contents  indicates,  the  First  Part  of 
this  book  describes  the  progress  of  man  in  material 
things,  while  the  Second  Part  seeks  to  explain  his  mode 
of  advance  from  lower  to  higher  stages  of  religious 
belief. 

Although  this  work  is  written  for  the  young,  I  ven¬ 
ture  to  hope  that  it  will  afford  to  older  persons  who 
will  accept  the  simplicity  of  its  style  interesting  in¬ 
formation  concerning  primitive  man. 

In  thinking  it  undesirable  to  encumber  the  pages  of 
a  work  of  this  class  with  foot-notes  and  references,  I 
have  been  at  some  pains  to  verify  the  statements  made, 
the  larger  body  of  which  may  be  found  in  the  works  of 
Tylor,  Lubbock,  Nilsson,  Waitz,  and  other  ethnolo¬ 
gists,  to  whom  my  obligations  are  cordially  expressed. 

I  am  fully  conscious  how  slenderly  each  department 
of  human  progress  has  been  dealt  with  in  this  work, 
but  in  seeking  to  compass  a  great  subject  within  a 
small  space,  it  has  been  my  anxiety  to  break  the  con¬ 
tinuity  of  the  story  as  little  as  possible. 


133,  Brecknock  Road,  London: 
December ,  1872. 


E.  C. 


PREFACE  TO  THE  PRESENT  EDITION 


So  enormous  has  been  the  advance  of  knowledge  con¬ 
cerning  primitive  man  since  this  book  was  written  forty- 
one  years  ago  that,  as  it  is  still  in  demand,  the  neces¬ 
sity  is  borne-in  upon  me  either  to  mend  it  or  end  it. 

I  have  chosen  the  former  course,  and  shall  be  well 
content  if  the  work  which  this  has  entailed  has  rec¬ 
ompense  in  the  revised  edition  finding  as  welcoming  an 
audience  as  the  original  had  the  good  fortune  to  secure. 

Strafford  House,  Aldeburgh,  Suffolk. 

December ,  1913. 


NOTE 


At  the  request  of  the  Society  for  Providing  Cheap 
Literature  for  the  Blind,  this  book  has  been  printed  in 
raised  type,  and  may  be  had  at  the  Society,  College 
Street,  Worcester,  for  4s.  6d.  It  has  also  been  trans¬ 
lated  into  Dutch,  Finnish,  French,  German,  Italian, 
Sekwana,  and  Swedish. 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 


Man  the  Worker 

Chapter  Page 

I.  Introductory  ......  3 

II.  Man  and  Apes  ......  10 

III.  Man’s  Great  Age  on  the  Earth  .  .  .15 

IV.  Wanderings  of  Early  Races  .  .  .  .21 

V.  Man’s  First  Wants . 26 

A.  Food  .......  26 

B.  Warmth  ......  28 

C.  Shelter  .  .  .  .  .  31 

VI.  Man’s  First  Tools  and  Weapons  ...  39 

VII.  Discovery  of  Metals  .....  46 

VIII.  Mankind  as  Hunters,  Shepherds,  Farmers, 

Traders  and  Sailors . 53 

IX.  Language  .......  60 

X.  Writing  .......  66 

XI.  Counting  and  Measuring  ....  73 

XII.  Games,  Song,  Music  and  Dancing  .  .  -75 

XIII.  Man’s  Progress  in  all  Things  .  .  .82 

XIV.  Decay  of  Peoples . 85 

XV.  Summary  .......  88 


xi 


CONTENTS 


Xll 


PART  II 


Man  the  Thinker 

Chapter  Page 

XVI.  Introductory . 95 

XVII.  Man’s  First  Questions  .  .  .  .  .102 

XVIII.  Man’s  Fear  of  the  Unknown  .  .  .  106 

XIX.  Myths  about  the  Earth  and  Man  .  .  .  109 

XX.  Myths  about  Sun  and  Moon  .  .  .  .  113 

XXI.  Myths  about  Eclipses . 115 

XXII.  Myths  about  Stars . 117 

XXIII.  Nature- Worship  .  .  .  .  .  .120 

1.  Worship  of  Lifeless  Things  .  .  .121 

A.  The  Earth  .....  121 

B.  Water  ......  124 

C.  Stones  and  Mountains  .  .  .125 

D.  Fire  .....  128 

E.  Sun,  Moon  and  Stars  .  .  .  130 

2.  Worship  of  Living  Things  .  .  137 

F.  Animal  Worship  ....  137 

G.  Trees  ......  141 

H.  Man  ......  145 

XXIV.  Belief  in  Magic  and  Witchcraft  .  .  .  146 

XXV.  Fetish- Worship  and  Idolatry  .  .  .153 

XXVI.  Sacrifice  and  Prayer  .  .  .  .  .156 

XXVII.  Animism — Man’s  Ideas  about  the  Soul  and  a 

Future  Life  ;.....  160 

XXVIII.  Polytheism,  or  Belief  in  many  Gods  .  .  170 


CONTENTS  xiii 

Chapter  Page 

XXIX.  Dualism,  or  Belief  in  Two  Gods  .  .  .  173 

XXX.  Monotheism,  or  Belief  in  One  God  .  .176 

XXXI.  Three  Stories  about  Abraham  .  .  .181 

XXXII.  Great  Teachers  .  .  .  .  185 

XXXIII.  Sacred  Books  ......  188 

XXXIV.  Summary . 205 

PART  III 

Man  the  Discoverer  and  Inventor 

XXXV.  Modern  Science  ......  209 

XXXVI.  Conclusion  .  .  .  .  .  .  .224 

List  of  Selected  Books  .  .  .  .226 

Index  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  231 

< 

\ 


PART  I 


MAN  THE  WORKER 


THE 

CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Everything  in  this  wide  world  has  a  history;  that  is, 
it  has  something  to  tell  or  something  to  be  found  out 
about  what  it  was,  and  how  it  has  come  to  be  what 
it  is. 

Even  of  the  small  stones  lying  in  the  roadway,  or 
about  the  garden,  clever  men,  after  a  great  deal  of 
painstaking,  have  found  out  a  history  more  wonderful 

i 

than  all  the  fairy  stories  you  have  been  told;  and  if 
this  be  true,  as  true  it  is,  of  dead  stones  and  many 
other  things  wThich  cannot  speak,  you  may  believe  that 
a  history  stranger  still  can  be  written  about  living 
things. 

And  it  is  the  history  of  the  most  wonderful  living 
thing  that  this  world  has  ever  seen  that  I  want  to  tell 
you.  You  will  perhaps  think  that  I  am  about  to  de¬ 
scribe  to  you  some  curly-haired,  big-tusked,  herce- 

3 


B 


4 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


looking  monster  that  lived  on  the  earth  thousands  of 
years  ago,  for  children  (and  some  grown-up  people  too) 
are  apt  to  think  that  things  are  wonderful  only  when 
they  are  big,  which  is  not  true.  To  show  you  what  I 
mean:  the  beautiful  six-sided  wax  cells  which  the  bee 
makes  are  more  curious  than  the  rough  hut  which  the 
chimpanzee — an  African  ape — piles  together;  and  the 
tiny  ants  that  keep  plant-lice  and  milk  them  just  as  we 
keep  cows  to  give  us  milk,  and  that  catch  the  young 
of  other  ants  to  make  slaves  of  them,  are  more  wonder¬ 
ful  than  the  huge  and  dull  rhinoceros.  It  has  been  truly 
said  that  the  brain  of  a  worker  ant  is  a  more  mar¬ 
vellous  thing  than  the  brain  of  a  man. 

Well,  it  is  the  Story  of  Man ,  as  the  most  wonderful 
living  thing  that  this  world  has  ever  seen,  or  will  ever 
see,  that  this  little  book  is  written  to  tell  you.  It  is 
really  the  story  of  yourself,  whereby  I  hope  that  you 
will  learn,  as  far  as  we  are  able  to  find  out,  how  it  is 
that  you  are  what  you  are,  and  where  you  are. 

Perhaps  you  have  thought  that  there  is  nothing  very 
wonderful  in  being  where  you  are,  or  in  possessing  the 
good  things  which  you  enjoy;  that  people  have  always 
had  them,  or  if  not,  that  they  had  only  to  buy  them 
at  the  shops;  and  that  from  the  first  day  man  lived  on 
the  earth  he  could  cook  his  food,  and  have  ices  and 


INTRODUCTORY 


5 


dessert  after  it;  could  dress  himself  well,  write  a  good 
hand,  live  in  a  fine  house,  and  build  splendid  churches 
with  stained-glass  windows,  just  as  he  does  now-a-days. 

If  you  have  thought  so,  you  are  wrong,  and  I  will 
try  to  set  you  right,  and  show  you  that  man  was  once 
wild  and  rough  and  savage,  frightened  at  his  own 
shadow,  and  still  more  frightened  at  the  roar  of  thunder 
and  the  quiver  of  lightning,  which  he  thought  were  the 
clapping  of  the  wings  and  the  flashing  of  the  eyes  of 
the  angry  Spirit  as  he  came  flying  from  the  sun;  and 
that  it  has  taken  many  thousands  of  years  for  man  to 
become  as  wise  and  skilful  as  we  now  see  him  to  be. 

For  just  as  you  had  to  learn  your  A,  B,  C,  to  enable 
you  to  read  at  all,  and  just  as  you  are  learning  things 
day  by  day  which  will  help  you  to  be  useful  when  you 
grow  up  and  are  called  upon  to  do  your  share  of  work 
in  this  world,  where  all  idleness  is  harmful  and  selfish, 
so  man  had  to  begin  learning,  and  to  get  at  facts  step 
by  step  along  a  toilsome  road. 

And  instead  of  being  told,  as  we  are  told,  why  a  cer¬ 
tain  thing  is  done,  and  which  is  the  best  way  to  do  it, 
he  had  to  find  out  these  things  for  himself  by  making 
use  of  his  brains,  and  had  often  to  do  the  same  thing 
over  and  over  again,  as  you  have  sometimes  with  a 
hard  lesson,  before  he  was  able  to  do  it  well. 


6 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Now  there  are  several  reasons  for  the  belief  that  man 
was  once  wild  and  naked,  and  that  only  by  slow  de¬ 
grees  did  he  become  clothed  and  civilized.  For  in¬ 
stance,  there  have  been  found  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
and  America,  but  especially  in  Europe,  thousands  of 
tools  and  weapons  which  were  shaped  and  used  by 
men  ages  upon  ages  ago,  and  which  are  just  like  the 
tools  and  weapons  used  by  savages  living  now-a-days 
in  various  parts  of  the  earth,  among  whom  no  traces  of 
a  civilized  past  can  be  found. 

Far  across  the  wind- tossed  seas,  far  away  in  such 
places  as  Australia,  New  Guinea,  Borneo,  and  Ceylon, 
there  live  at  this  day  creatures  so  wild  that  if  you  saw 
them  you  would  scarcely  believe  that  they  were  human 
beings  and  not  wild  animals  in  the  shape  of  men,  cover¬ 
ing  themselves  with  mud,  feeding  on  roots,  and  living 
in  roughly-made  huts  or  in  woods  under  the  shelter  of 
trees.  The  word  “savage”  means  one  who  lives  in  the 
woods.  But  they  need  not  our  pity,  if  they  are  as  con¬ 
tent  as  a  Vedda  cave-dweller  who  said  to  a  traveller: 
“It  is  pleasant  for  us  to  feel  the  rain  beating  on  our 
shoulders,  and  good  to  go  out  and  dig  yams  and  come 
home  wet  and  see  the  fire  burning  in  the  cave  and  sit 
round  it.” 

In  telling  you  how  the  earliest  men  lived  I  shall 


INTRODUCTORY 


7 


want  you  to  go  back  with  me  a  great  many  years,  even 
before  the  histories  of  different  countries  begin,  to 
what  are  called  “pre-historic”  times,  because  they  were 
before  history,  as  we  understand  that  word.  For  men 
had  to  learn  a  great  deal  before  they  were  clever  enough 
to  write  histories  of  themselves;  many,  many  centuries — 
and  a  century  is  a  hundred  years — passed  away  before 
they  left  any  trace  behind  to  tell  us  that  they  lived, 
other  than  the  remains  that  I  am  about  to  describe, 
or  broken  pottery  and  scratching  on  bones  and  in  cav¬ 
erns.  So  I  shall  take  you  past  not  only  the  Conquest, 
but  past  the  day  when  in  this  England — then  called 
Britain — the  wild  people  dwelt  in  wattled  huts,  lived  on 
fruits  and  the  flesh  of  wild  animals,  stained  their  bodies 
with  the  blue  juice  of  the  woad-plant,  and  worshipped 
trees  and  the  sun  and  moon,  even  to  the  day  when  no 
sea  flowed  between  England  and  France,  and  when 
a  mass  of  land  enclosing  Great  Britain  and  Ireland 
stretched  into  the  Atlantic. 

For  you  must  take  now  on  trust  what  by  and  by  you 
will  be  able  to  prove  the  truth  of  for  yourself,  when  you 
wisely  learn  lessons  from  the  rocks  and  hills  themselves, 
instead  of  from  books  about  them,  that  this  world, 
like  the  other  worlds  floating  with  it  in  the  great  star- 
filled  spaces,  is  very,  very  old  and  everchanging, — so 


8 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Fig.  i. — Map  of  Great  Britain  in  the  Old  Stone  Age 
(From  Boyd  Dawkin’s  Early  Man  in  Britain) 


INTRODUCTORY 


9 


old  that  men  make  all  sorts  of  guesses  about  its  birth¬ 
day;  and  that,  unlike  us  who  become  wrinkled  and 
grey,  it  keeps  ever  fresh  and  ever  beautiful,  brightened 
by  the  smiling  sunlight  playing  over  its  face.  And  now, 
without  further  preface,  to  my  story. 


v 


( 


n 


4 


# 


•  MAN  AND  APES 

To  make  that  story  clear  from  the  beginning,  I  will 
tell  you:  i.  What  is  known  about  man’s  place  among 
other  animals;  2.  About  the  very  long  time  that  he  has 
lived  on  the  earth,  and  3.  About  the  wanderings  of  the 
earliest  races  of  men.  Then  we  will  pass  on  to  talk 
about  man’s  first  wants  and  what  tools  and  weapons 
he  invented  to  supply  them.  Thus  we  reach  the  stage 
of  Man  the  Worker. 

Next  we  have  to  learn  how  men  grew  from  small 
groups  into  tribes  and  nations,  and  how  they  thus  be¬ 
came  more  and  more  civilized. 

Then  it  will  be  interesting  to  learn  what  questions 
men,  as  they  became  less  savage,  asked  about  the  world 
as  their  dwelling  place  and  the  source  of  all  things,  and 
about  the  heavens  above  them.  Here  we  reach  the 
stage  of  Man  the  Thinker  in  the  highest  sense  of  that 
word. 

Lastly  we  have  to  learn  what  answers  to  some  of 
these  questions  civilized  man  has  been  clever  enough  to 


10 


MAN  AND  APES 


ii 


find.  Here  we  reach  the  stage  of  Man  the  Discoverer 
and  Inventor. 

You  will  learn  from  other  books  the  story  of  the 
beginnings  of  life  on  the  earth,  and  how,  by  slow  steps 
and  through  long  ages,  the  simplest  living  things  have 
given  rise  to  millions  on  millions  of  different  plants  and 
animals.  You  also  will  learn  that,  unlike  as  these  are 
to  look  at,  all  plants  and  animals  are  made  up  of 
myriads  of  cells  formed  of  the  same  stuff.  Those  which 
resemble  one  another  are  classed  together;  the  highest 
class  of  animals  being  called  Mammals,  because  they 
suckle  their  young.  (Lat.  mamma ,  the  female  breast). 

Man  and  the  tailless  apes  are  ranked  at  the  head  of 
Mammals;  the  highest  apes  being  the  chimpanzee  and 
gorilla,  which  are  found  in  Africa,  and  the  orang-utan 
and  gibbon,  which  are  found  in  the  forests  of  Borneo, 
and  Sumatra.  Of  these  the  orang-utan  has  the  most 
manlike  brain;  the  chimpanzee  the  most  manlike  skull; 
the  gorilla  the  most  manlike  feet  and  hands,  while  the 
gibbon  is  the  only  one  of  the  four  that  walks  erect, 
doing  that  in  a  shambling  sort  of  way.  Man  alone 
slowly  acquired  his  erect  position,  which,  added  to  his 
greater  power  of  thumb  as  a  grasping  organ,  was  an 
enormous  help  to  his  attainment  of  the  highest  place 
among  Mammals.  Although  the  bones  of  men  and 


0 


12 


MAN  AND  APES 


x3 

apes  cannot  be  mistaken  the  one  for  the  other,  and 
although  the  brain  of  man  makes  a  gulf  between  him 
and  the  apes  which  will  never  be  filled,  each  animal, 
as  this  picture  of  their  skeletons  shows,  is  built  on  the 
same  plan.  And  what  near  “blood  relations”  they  are 
is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  same  kind  of  blood  flows 
through  the  veins  of  each,  which  is  not  the  case  with 
man  and  the  tailed  monkeys. 

There  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  man  and  these  big 
apes,  and  also  the  monkeys,  sprung  from  a  common 
ancestor.  What  this  ancestor  was  exactly  like  we  do 
not  know,  because  none  of  his  bones  have  been  found; 
only  those  of  animals  whose  skulls  are  partly  apelike 
and  partly  manlike  having,  as  yet,  been  discovered. 
But  there  can  be  little  question  that  he  was  a  wild, 
four-footed,  hairy  animal,  living  in  trees.  Man  has 
not  come  from  an  ape  or  a  monkey,  as  some  ignorant 
people  think;  each  has  descended  from  a  common 
ancestor;  not  in  a  straight  line,  but  in  some  such  way 
as  shown  in  the  diagram  on  the  following  page. 


14 


* 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


/ 


Civilized  Man 


Savage  Man 


Primitive  Man 


Baboons 


.Big  Apes 


/Tailed  Monkeys 


Common  Ancestor 


Ill 


MAN’S  GREAT  AGE  ON  THE  EARTH 

All  that  we  can  learn  about  this  is  supplied:  i.  By  the 
few  remains  of  man’s  skeleton  which  have  been  dug 
out  of  very  old  deposits;  2.  By  the  numerous  tools  and 
weapons  found  in  these,  and  3.  By  pictures  scratched 
on  rock-faces  and  cavern-walls,  or  on  pieces  of  bone 
and  stone. 

Very  few  human  bones  have  been  found,  because 
they  are  easily  dissolved  in  the  soil  or  in  water,  and, 
moreover,  would  often  be  eaten  by  wild  beasts,  espe¬ 
cially  by  hyenas,  which,  in  far  away  ages,  roamed  over 
large  parts  of  the  world.  Luckily,  the  hard  framework 
of  man’s  skull  has  prevented  its  perishing  as  quickly 
as  the  other  bones,  and  the  specimens  that  have  been 
obtained  are  of  very  great  value  because  they  can  be 
compared  with  the  skulls  of  apes  and  of  men  living 
today,  and  the  differences  and  likenesses  noted.  One 
of  the  oldest  skulls  comes  from  Java,  an  island  once 
joined,  with  others  near  it,  to  the  mainland  of  Asia, 
and  not  far  from  the  places  inhabited  by  the  orang- 

15 


i6 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


utan.  It  is  of  the  greatest  interest  to  us,  because  it 
seems  to  have  belonged  to  an  animal  somewhere  be¬ 
tween  man  and  ape.  Other  skulls,  more  or  less  human 
in  shape,  have  been  unearthed  in  England  (the  most 
apelike  was  found  at  Piltdown  in  Sussex  in  1912),  Ger¬ 
many,  and  other  parts  of  Europe.  None  so  old  as 
these  have  been  found  in  America.  But  our  nearest 
relations,  the  tailless  apes,  are  also  not  found  there, 
which  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  common 
ancestor  of  Man  and  Apes  had  its  home  probably  in 
some  part  of  Asia. 

That  the  skulls  and  other  bones  of  the  earliest  known 
men  are  of  enormous  age  is  proved  by  the  depth  of  the 
soil  in  which  they  have  been  found,  and  by  that  soil 
having  remained  unbroken  into  since  the  bones  got 
there.  You  will  learn  from  books  on  geology  about  the 
layers  or  strata  (so-called  from  a  Latin  word  meaning 
“ stretched  out”)  of  different  rocks  that  make  up  what 
is  known  as  the  crust  of  the  globe;  (see  p.  217)  here, 
it  must  suffice  to  say  that  these  rocks  have  been  either 
fused  together  by  heat  or  laid  down  by  water.  The 
water-laid  rocks,  in  which  alone  the  remains  of  plants 
and  animals  are  found,  reach  to  a  total  depth  of  twelve 
miles,  and  it  is  those  nearest  the  surface,  which  are 
about  four  hundred  feet  in  thickness,  that  yield  the 


MAN’S  GREAT  AGE  ON  THE  EARTH 


17 


remains  of  man  and  of  the  animals  closest  akin  to  him. 
But  though  these  uppermost  deposits  are  less  than  one- 
fifteen-hundredth  of  the  total  fossil-yielding  rocks  in 
thickness,  the  sand  and  gravel  and  clay  and  chalk  of 
which  they  are  made  up  tell  a  tale  of  changes  filling 
millions  of  years.  At  the  time  when  man  was  spreading 
himself  over  the  earth  much  of  what  was  then  land 
is  now  sea,  and  much  of  what  was  sea  is  now  land. 
The  British  Isles  were  part  of  a  continent  that  stretched 
far  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean;  there  was  no  English 
Channel  and  no  Irish  Sea,  and  waters  now  roll  over 
what  were  then  wide  valleys  wherein  roamed  rhinoc¬ 
eroses,  hippopotamuses,  ancestors  of  the  elephant  of 
today,  sabre-toothed  Hons,  cave-bears  and  other  wild 
animals.  There  was  no  Adriatic  Sea,  and  where  the 
Mediterranean  now  flows  there  were  two  large  lakes, 
the  land  spaces  between  which  united  Europe  and 
Africa  at  Gibraltar  and  Sicily.  America  was  joined  to 
Asia  where  the  Behring  Straits  now  flow,  and  to  Europe 
by  way  of  Greenland. 

Another  proof  of  man’s  great  age  on  the  earth  is  in 
the  remains  found  in  limestone  caverns  in  Western  and 
Central  Europe.  All  of  these  have  so  many  features 
in  common  that  a  description  of  one  will  serve  for  the 
others.  Leaving  for  a  while  some  account  of  a  few  of 


1 8  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

the  interesting  pictures  spoken  of  on  p.  15  as  found  in 
some  of  these,  I  will  describe  the  cave  at  Brixham, 
on  the  south  coast  of  Devonshire,  which  was  discov¬ 
ered  more  than  fifty  years  ago  through  the  falling-in 
of  a  part  of  the  roof.  The  floor  is  of  stalagmite,  or 
particles  of  lime,  which  have  been  brought  down  from 
the  roof  by  the  dropping  of  water,  and  become  hard¬ 
ened  into  stone  again.  (, Stalagmite  comes  from  a  Greek 
word  which  means  a  drop).  In  this  floor,  which  is 
about  one  foot  in  thickness,  were  found  bones  of  the 
reindeer  and  cave-bear.  Below  it  is  a  red,  loamy  mass, 
thirteen  feet  thick  in  some  parts,  in  which  were  buried 
flint  flakes  or  knives,  and  bones  of  the  mammoth  or 
woolly-haired  elephant.  Beneath  this  is  a  bed  of  gravel, 
more  than  twenty  feet  thick,  in  which  also  flint  flakes 
and  some  small  bones  were  found.  Altogether,  there 
were  more  than  thirty  flints  mingled  with  the  bones  of 
bears  and  woolly  elephants  in  the  same  cave;  and  as 
these  flints  are  known  to  have  been  chipped  by  the 
hand  of  man,  it  is  not  hard  to  prove  that  he  lived  in 
this  country  when  those  creatures  roamed  over  it. 

But  what  proof  have  we,  you  ask,  that  the  bones  of 
these  creatures  are  so  very  old?  Apart  from  the  fact 
that  for  many  centuries  no  living  mammoth  has  been 
seen,  we  have  the  finding  of  its  bones  buried  at  a  goodly 


MAN’S  GREAT  AGE  ON  THE  EARTH 


19 


depth;  and  as  it  is  certain  that  no  one  would  trouble  to 
dig  a  grave  to  put  them  in,  there  must  be  some  other 


Fig.  3. — The  Mammoth 
(From  Sollas’  Ancient  Hunters ) 

cause  for  the  mass  of  loam  under  which  they  are  found. 

There  are  several  ways  by  which  the  various  bones 
may  have  got  into  the  cave.  The  creatures  to  which 
they  belonged  may  have  died  on  the  hillside,  and  their 
bones  have  been  washed  into  the  cave ;  or  they  may  have 
served  as  food  for  man,  since,  as  the  crushed  bones 

show,  he  very  soon  became  a  flesh-feeder;  or  they  may 

c 


20 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


have  sought  refuge  and  died  in  the  cave,  but,  be  this 
as  it  may,  we  have  to  account  for  the  thirty-five  feet 
of  loam  and  gravel  in  which  their  remains  are  buried. 

The  agent  that  thus  covered  them  from  view  for 
long,  long  years,  is  that  wonderful  tool  of  nature  which, 
before  the  day  when  no  living  thing  was  upon  the  earth, 
and  ever  since,  has  been  cutting  through  rocks,  opening 
the  deep  valleys,  shaping  the  highest  mountains, 
hollowing  out  the  lowest  caverns,  and  which  is  carrying 
the  soil  from  one  place  to  another  to  form  new  lands 
where  now  the  sea  rolls.  It  is  water  which  carried  that 
deposit  into  Brixham  cavern  and  covered  all  the 
bones,  and  which,  since  the  day  that  mammoth  and 
bear  and  reindeer  lived  in  Devonshire,  has  scooped  out 
the  surrounding  valleys  ioo  feet  deeper.  And  although 
the  time  which  water  takes  to  deepen  a  channel,  or  eat 
out  a  cavern,  depends  upon  the  speed  with  which  it 
flows,  and  on  the  amount  of  dissolving  carbonic  acid 
in  it,  you  may  judge  that  the  quickest  stream  works 
slowly  to  those  who  watch  it,  when’  I  tell  you  it  is  com¬ 
puted  that  the  river  Mississippi,  flowing  at  its  present 
rate,  takes  six  thousand  years  to  scoop  out  its  valley 
one  foot  lower!  So,  with  proof  heaped  upon  proof 
before  us,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  man’s  age  on  the 
earth  cannot  be  measured  by  years. 


IV 


WANDERINGS  OF  EARLY  RACES 

I  have  told  you  that  man  first  appeared  in  some 
warm  forest-clad  part  of  the  globe,  perhaps  that  wherein 
the  great  apes  now  dwell,  as  Southern  Asia,  but  as  to 
this  we  may  never  be  certain.  We  know  that  in  the 
long  course  of  time  his  descendants  slowly  overspread 
the  earth.  And  as  the  climate  in  which  people  live 
affects  the  colour  of  their  skins,  so  the  progress  of  any 
race,  as  well  as  the  kind  of  life  which  they  live,  depend 
very  much  on  the  land  they  dwell  in.  This  goes  far  to 
explain  the  marked  unlikenesses  between  the  races  of 
mankind,  why  some  have  remained  to  this  day  wild 
and  savage,  while  others  have  become  civilized. 

Although  we  talk  of  man  as  doing  this  or  that,  we 
must  apply  that  name,  at  the  remote  time  with  which 
I  am  dealing,  to  animals  not  then  wholly  human,  be¬ 
cause  in  many  ways  like  the  apes.  I  have  already 
spoken  of  remains  which  have  lately  come  to  light  and 
which  show  that  there  were  several  kinds  of  half-human 
creatures,  as  well  as  of  manlike  apes.  By  steps  that 
we  cannot  clearly  trace  these  spread  themselves  over 


21 


22 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


the  earth  at  a  time  when  the  climate  was  very  different 
from  what  it  is  now.  That  was  in  what  is  named  the 
later  Tertiary  Age  of  the  globe’s  history,  when  the 
remains  of  plants  and  animals  prove  that  the  climate 
was  so  very  hot  in  the  far  north  that  evergreens,  palms 
and  waterlilies  were  abundant  there.  Sturdy,  strong- 
limbed,  and  very  hairy,  the  men  of  that  time  needed 
no  clothing;  plenty  of  fruits  and  berries  supplied  their 
wants,  so  that,  like  most  dwellers  in  hot  countries, 
they  were  chiefly  plant-feeders.  But  they  had  to  keep 
together  on  guard  against  wild  beasts,  huge  rhinoc¬ 
eroses,  hyenas,  tigers,  and  ancestors  of  the  elephant  and 
horse,  and  to  make  use  of  stone  weapons,  then  of 
rudest  and  roughest  shape,  and  of  wooden  clubs,  against 
them. 

This  warm  climate  was  followed  by  several  intervals 
of  severe  cold,  known  as  the  Ice  Ages,  when  a  large 
part  of  the  northern  half  of  the  globe  was  frozen  over. 
The  creatures  that  could  live  only  in  a  hot  climate 
perished  or  were  driven  southwards;  man  could  no 
longer  subsist  on  plants  alone,  and  was  driven  to  hunt 
and  kill  and,  if  he  had  discovered  how  to  make  fire, 
cook  the  wild  animals.  Chief  among  these  were  the 
mammoth  and  horse,  thousands  of  bones  of  which,  with 
those  of  other  animals,  mixed  with  numerous  stone 


WANDERINGS  OF  EARLY  RACES 


23 


implements,  have  been  found  in  one  place  alone  in 
Moravia.  Such  an  addition  to  his  food  supply  would 
enable  him  to  extend  his  wanderings.  And  some 
split  human  bones  that  have  been  found  seem  to  show 
that  man  was  a  cannibal  in  pre-historic  times,  as,  in 
some  parts  of  the  world,  he  has  been,  for  various  rea¬ 
sons,  one  ever  since. 

We  may  picture  to  ourselves  great  hordes  of  manlike 
creatures  and,  perchance,  of  manlike  apes  also,  pouring 
forth,  driven  by  food  impulse,  from  a  common  centre, 
some  by  way  of  Southern  Arabia  into  Africa,  where  we 
find  gorillas  and  chimpanzees  as  well  as  negroes;  others 
wandering  southwards  by  land  routes  now  under  the 
ocean  to  Australia  and  Tasmania;  while  vast  numbers 
spread  themselves  over  Asia,  or  passed  westward 
into  Europe,  leaving  the  orang-utans  and  gibbons 
on  a  side  track  that  these  creatures  have  kept,  re¬ 
maining  apes  for  ever.  From  Asia  some  reached 
America,  and  thus  in  the  course  of  hundreds  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  years,  the  world  was  peopled,  and,  in  the  long 
course  of  time,  split-up  into  numerous  races.  Man, 
we  may  say,  becomes  truly  man  to  us  when  he  reaches 
what  is  called  the  Old  Stone  Age,  from  which  we  pass 
without  any  break  through  the  New  Stone  Age  and 
the  Ages  of  Metals  to  the  present  day. 


24 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Is  it  not  a  wonderful  thing  that  of  the  fifteen  hun¬ 
dred  millions  of  people  who  it  is  reckoned  make  up  the 
population  of  the  world,  there  are  no  two  faces  exactly 
alike?  To  us  every  Chinaman  with  his  yellow  com¬ 
plexion,  almond  eyes,  and  nearly  hairless  face,  looks  the 
same,  as  does  every  negro,  with  his  flat  nose,  wide 
nostrils,  and  thick  lips.  But  every  Chinaman  knows 
every  other  Chinaman  by  his  different  features,  and 
likewise  every  negro  knows  every  other  negro,  just  as 
the  quick  eye  of  a  shepherd  can  tell  one  sheep  from 
another  in  a  large  flock,  and  a  gardener  tell  each 
hyacinth  among  a  thousand  bulbs. 

Nearly  all  the  world’s  peoples  are  more  or  less  mixed, 
but  they  retain  certain  characters,  due  to  their  hair 
and  the  colour  of  their  skins.  These  mark  them  off  into 
four  great  divisions,  namely: 

i.  The  Caucasian;  white  or  tawny  skinned,  with 
smooth  or  wavy  hair.  These  include  nearly  all 
Europeans,  Americans  and  many  Asiatics,  as 
Hindus  and  Persians;  also  Armenians  and  Jews. 

2.  The  Mongolian;  yellow-skinned  with  lank,  straight, 
and  coarse  black  hair.  These  include  the 
Chinese,  Japanese,  and  numerous  peoples  in 
Asia;  also  Turks,  Finns,  and  Magyars  or  Hun¬ 
garians. 


WANDERINGS  OF  EARLY  RACES 


25 


3.  The  American;  red-skinned,  with  hair  like  the 
Mongolian.  These  include  the  Red  Indians  of 
North  America,  and  the  Indians  of  S.  America. 

4.  The  Negro;  black-skinned,  with  woolly  or  frizzly 
hair.  These  include  all  the  black  races  in  Africa, 
America,  and  wherever  else  living.  Older  than  all 
these  are,  perhaps,  the  natives  of  Australia. 

Although  what  is  known  as  race-feeling  will  for  ever 
keep  black  and  white  and  yellow  people  more  or  less 
apart,  men  are  the  same  in  body  and  mind  all  the  world 
over,  the  differences  being  in  the  degree  in  which  some 
are  stronger  and  more  clever  than  others.  To  know 
this  is  to  engender  kindly  feelings  towards  our  fellow 
creatures,  and,  with  what  we  also  know  about  our 
kinship  with  animals,  to  extend  our  sympathy  to  them, 
the  more  so  that  they  are  dumb  and  often  helpless,  so 
that  in  the  words  of  a  poet  who  taught  the  oneness  of 
all  living  things  before  science  had  proved  it,  we  may 

Never  blend  our  pleasure  or  our  pride 
With  sorrow  of  the  meanest  thing  that  feels. 


0 


V 

MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 

These  are,  A.  food,  B.  warmth,  and  C.  shelter. 

A.  Food  is  the  chief est  of  the  three,  because,  like 
every  other  living  thing,  whether  plant  or  animal,  man 
must  eat  or  die.  In  the  last  chapter  I  said  a  little 
about  him  as  at  first  a  plant-feeder,  and  then  becoming 
also  a  flesh-feeder;  the  animal  food  being  obtained  by 
hunting  and  fishing,  and,  where  men  ate  one  another, 
by  fighting.  We  may  learn  from  the  lowest  savages 
of  today,  the  natives  of  Australia,  much  about  primitive 
man.  These  savages  neither  till  the  soil  nor  raise  crops, 
but  feed  on  seeds,  roots,  fruits,  beetles,  grasshoppers, 
ants,  grubs,  emus  and  kangaroos,  and,  in  some  parts,  on 
human  flesh.  All  these  things  have  been  the  food  of 
man  from  his  distant  past.  He  has  fought  with,  and 
killed,  other  men,  whereby  the  weaker  have  become 
extinct,  and  he  has  eaten  them,  not  only  because  hu¬ 
man  flesh  is  tasty,  but  because  of  the  feeling  of  revenge 
which  fighting  kindles,  and  also  because  of  the  wide¬ 
spread  belief  among  savages  that  the  eater  takes  into 

himself  the  qualities  of  the  eaten.  For  example,  among 

26 


MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 


27 


the  Hurons  of  North  America  if  an  enemy  had  shown 
courage  his  heart  was  roasted,  cut  into  small  pieces,  and 
given  to  the  young  men  and  boys  to  eat,  while,  as  I 
shall  tell  you  later,  the  flesh  of  human  beings  who  are 
sacrificed  to  the  gods,  is  eaten.  There  was  a  tribe  in 
South  America  which  not  only  devoured  the  dead,  but 
ground  their  bones  to  drink  in  liquor,  for  they  said  it 
was  better  to  be  inside  a  friend  than  to  be  swallowed  up 
by  the  cold  earth.  This  is  not  pleasant  to  write  about, 
but  the  truth  has  to  be  told  if  the  story  of  savage  ways 
of  life  is  to  be  complete.  One  thing  for  reading  aright 
the  history  of  man  must  never  be  forgotten.  It  is 
this:  1.  That  his  struggle  for  food  is  a  struggle  for  life, 
and  2.  That  the  men  who  stuck  closest  together  won 
in  that  struggle. 

1.  All  living  things  multiply  faster  than  their  food- 
supply,  therefore  some  have  to  go  short;  hence  the 
fight  between  every  plant  and  every  animal  all  the 
world  over,  in  which  the  weaker  are  beaten.  One 
among  many  proofs  that  man  was  a  fighting  animal 
from  the  outset  is  in  the  finding  of  the  broken  bones  of 
two  races  mingled  together  at  a  place  called  Kaprina,  in 
Hungary.  Moreover,  so  quickly  does  everything  multi¬ 
ply  that  if  all  the  seeds  that  a  single  plant  produces, 
and  if  all  the  eggs  in  the  roe  of  a  codfish  (there  are  nine 


28 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


millions),  came  to  maturity,  the  whole  earth  would 
soon  be  covered  by  the  plants,  and  the  sea  would  be¬ 
come  a  solid  block  of  codfish.  But  as  only  a  very  few 
of  the  seeds  and  a  very  few  of  the  eggs  survive  to 
produce  their  kind,  the  balance  between  living  things 
and  their  surroundings  is  not  upset. 

2.  “Union  is  strength”  is  an  old  and  true  saying. 
Some  tiny  creatures,  as  the  ant  and  bee,  acted  on  that 
long  before  man  did,  building  up  a  social  life  which  is 
one  of  the  marvels  of  the  insect  world.  All  other 
animals,  in  the  degree  that  they  keep  together,  are  the 
higher  in  the  scale  of  life,  and  succeed  the  better;  for 
as  a  great  Roman  Emperor  said,  “That  which  is  not 
good  for  the  swarm  is  not  good  for  the  bee.”  And  it 
was  because  the  creatures  from  whom  man  sprang  were 
banded  together  that  the  strongest  groups  among  them 
won  in  the  struggle  for  food,  which  as  I  have  said,  was 
the  struggle  for  life.  And  more  than  this.  The  strong¬ 
est  came  to  the  front  as  leaders  in  battle;  the  wisest 
came  to  the  front  with  good  counsel,  to  quell  disputes 
inside  the  group,  and  to  devise  laws  which  were  for 
the  common  good,  each  in  their  own  way  doing  some¬ 
thing  to  help  unity,  without  which  no  tribe  or  nation 
can  survive  in  the  never-ending  life-struggle. 

B.  Warmth.  There  are  a  great  many  curious  stories 


MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 


29 


which  give  an  account  of  the  way  in  which  fire  was 
first  obtained,  but  they  are  a  part  of  that  guess-work 
about  things  which  is  ever  going  on,  and  which  some¬ 
times  brings  us  nearer  the  truth.  Men  have  ever  been 
quick  to  make  use  of  what  we  call  their  “ wits”  (which 
word  comes  from  an  old  word  used  by  our  forefathers, 
meaning  understanding)  or  their  common  sense,  and 


Fig.  4. — Bushmen  Drilling  Fire 
(From  Tylor’s  Anthropology) 

common  sense  taught  them  that  fire  was  to  be  had  by 
rubbing  two  pieces  of  wood  together.  In  making  their 
flint  weapons  sparks  would  fly,  but  they  saw  that  the 
flints  themselves  could  not  be  set  on  fire.  When  they 
felt  cold,  they  rubbed  their  hands  together,  and  warmth 
came  to  them.  They  tried  what  could  be  done  by  running 
a  blunt-pointed  stick  along  a  groove  of  its  own  making  in 
another  piece  of  wood,  and  they  found  first  that  each  got 
heated,  then  that  sparks  flew,  then  that  flame  burst  out. 


3° 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Travellers  tell  us  that  savages  can  produce  fire  in  a 
few  seconds  in  this  way,  and  that  in  the  northern  seas 
of  Europe  the  islanders  find  a  bird  so  fat  and  greasy 
that  all  they  have  to  do  is  to  draw  a  wick  through  its 
body,  and  on  lighting  it  the  bird  burns  away  as  a 
candle  does!  And  fire  was  as  useful  in  the  days  I  am 
writing  about  as  travellers  find  it  now  in  giving  pro¬ 
tection  from  the  wild  beasts  at  night,  so  that  man  had 
many  reasons  for  keeping  his  fire  always  burning  by 
heaping  on  it  the  wood  which  was  ready  to  his  hand 
in  such  abundance. 

This  leads  me  to  say  a  little  about  cooking  and 
pottery.  At  first  men  ate  flesh  raw,  as  some  tribes  do 
now,  but  afterwards  they  would  learn  to  cook  it,  and 
this  they  did  by  simply  putting  the  meat  direct  to  the^ 
fire.  Afterwards  they  would  dig  a  hole  and  line  it  with 
the  hard  hide  of  the  slain  animal,  fill  if  with  water,  put 
the  meat  in,  and  then  make  stones  red-hot,  dropping 
them  in  until  the  water  was  hot  enough  and  the  meat 
was  cooked.  Then  a  still  better  way  would  be  found 
out  of  boiling  the  food  in  vessels  set  over  the  fire, 
which  were  daubed  outside  with  clay  to  prevent  their 
being  burnt.  Thus  men  learnt — seeing  how  hard  fire 
made  the  clay — to  use  it  by  itself  and  to  shape  it  into 
rough  pots,  which  were  dried  either  in  the  sun  or  before 


MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 


3X 

the  fire,  and  hence  arose  the  beautiful  art  of  making 
earthenware. 

C.  Shelter.  Primitive  man,  like  savages  in  hot 
climates  today,  went  naked:  only  as  he  lived  in  colder 
parts  would  he  need  clothing,  and  for  this  he  would  use 
the  skins  of  animals,  which  were  sewn  together  with 
bone  needles,  sinews  being  used  for  thread.  As  for  his 
dwellings,  these  also  would  depend  on  the  climate,  and 
on  his  movements  from  one  place  to  another.  Some 
rude  shelter  of  boughs  and  bushes  to  screen  him  from 
the  wind  sufficed  him;  or,  as  among  the  Eskimos,  skins 
stretched  on  bones,  or,  like  the  Bushmen  when  out 
hunting,  he  would  bury  himself  in  the  sand.  Or  a  hole 
would  be  dug  in  the  ground,  a  wall  being  made  of  the 
earth  which  was  thrown  out,  and  a  covering  of  tree- 
boughs  put  over  it;  or  rude  dwellings  would  be  perched 
on  tree-tops.  Sometimes,  where  blocks  of  stone  were 
found  lying  loosely,  they  were  placed  together,  and 
a  rude,  strong  kind  of  hut  made  in  this  way.  And 
wherever  there  were  over-hanging  rocks  or  hollow  trees 
and  caves,  these  would  be  used  as  ready-made  shelters. 
There  have  been  found  in  lakes,  especially  in  Switzer¬ 
land,  remains  of  houses  which  were  built  upon  piles 
driven  into  the  bed  of  the  lake.  The  shape  of  many  of 
these  piles  shows  that  they  were  cut  with  stone  hatch- 


0 


32  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


4 

i 


Fig.  5. — Tree  Dwellings  in  South  India 
(From  Ratzel’s  History  of  Mankind) 


MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 


33 


ets,  which  proves  that  people  lived  in  this  curious  fash¬ 
ion  in  very  early  times.  They  did  so  to  be  freer  from 
the  attacks  of  their  enemies  and  of  wild  beasts. 

These  lake-dwellers,  as  they  are  called  (and  not  only 
did  they  live  thus  in  those  remote  times  and  in  later 
ages,  but  there  are  people  living  in  the  same  manner  in 
the  East  Indies,  Central  Africa,  Borneo  and  other 
places  at  this  day),  made  good  use  of  their  stone  hatch¬ 
ets,  for  they  not  only  cut  down  trees,  but  killed  such 
animals — and  very  fierce  they  were — as  the  bear,  wolf, 
and  wild  boar.  They  had  learned  to  fish  with  nets 
made  of  flax,  which  they  floated  with  buoys  of  bark, 
and  sank  with  stone  weights. 

Besides  what  we  know  about  the  dwellings  of  men 
in  early  times,  there  have  been  found  on  the  shores  of 
Denmark,  Scotland,  and  elsewhere,  enormous  heaps  of 
what  are  called  “ kitchen-middens.”  These  were  really 
the  feeding-places  of  the  people  who  lived  on  or  about 
those  coasts,  and  they  are  made  up  of  piles  of  shells, 
largely  those  of  the  oyster,  mussel,  periwinkle,  etc.  on 
which  they  fed.  With  these  there  have  also  been  found 
the  bones  of  stags  and  other  animals,  and  also  of  birds, 
as  well  as  flint  knives  and  other  things. 

I  said  at  starting  that  the  three  things  which  men 
would  first  need  were  food,  warmth,  and  shelter,  and 


0 


Fig.  6. — Fishing  Village  on  the  Mekong,  Siam 
(From  Ratzel) 


MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 


35 


having  told  you  how  these  were  procured,  you  are  per¬ 
haps  wondering  how,  since  even  animals  understand 
one  another  by  their  cries  and  movements,  people  so 
very  savage  spoke  to  each  other  and  what  words  they 
used.  This  we  shall  never  know,  but  we  may  be  sure 
that  they  had  some  way  of  making  their  thoughts 
known  one  to  another,  and  that  they  learned  to  speak 
and  write  and  count  little  by  little,  just  as  they  learned 
everything  else.  They  had  some  idea  of  drawing,  for 
bones  and  pieces  of  slate  have  been  found  with  rough 
sketches  of  man,  mammoth,  reindeer,  and  other  an¬ 
imals  scratched  on  them.  These  old-world  pictures, 
some  of  the  most  striking  of  which  are  found  on  the 
walls  of  caverns,  witness  to  the  truth  that  man  is 
greater  than  brutes  in  this  as  in  other  things,  since  no 
brute  has  yet  been  known  to  draw  a  picture,  invent  an 
alphabet,  or  learn  how  to  make  a  fire. 

But  I  shall  have  something  to  say  about  speaking 
and  writing  later  on. 


D 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


36 


Fig.  7. — Engraving  of  a  Mammoth,  Les  Combarelles  Cave,  France  * 


Fig.  8. — Engraving  of  a  Horse,  Les  Combarelles 


*  Figs.  7  to  12  are  reproduced  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Masson  & 
Cie  from  u  L' Anthropoid gie.” 


MAN’S  FIRST  WANTS 


37 


Fig.  g. — Monstrous  Forms,  A.  from  cave  at  Gargas,  France;  B.  C. 

D.  from  Altamira,  Spain 


Fig.  io. — Group  of  Red  Animals  on  a  Rock  at  Cogul 
Stag  surrounded  by  hinds;  to  the  right  an  ox  and  elk.  Behind  the  ox  is 
a  black  head  of  a  hind  of  earlier  date 


38 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


A  B 

Fig.  ii. — Paintings  on  a  Rock  at  Cogul 
A.  A  man  attacking  a  stag;  B.  A  stag  which  he  has  killed* 


Fig.  12. — Three  Figures  of  Women 
From  cave  at  Cogul,  Spain  * 


*  Figs.  7  to  12  are  reproduced  by  permission  of  Messrs.  Masson  & 
Cie  from  “  L’ Anthropologies 


VI 


MAN’S  FIRST  TOOLS  AND  WEAPONS 

There  are  few  things  which  the  wonderfully  made 
hand  of  man  cannot  do,  but  it  must  have  tools  with 
which  to  work.  A  man  cannot  cut  wood  or  meat  with¬ 
out  a  knife,  he  cannot  write  without  a  pen,  or  drive  in 
nails  without  a  hammer.  He  might  wish  to  eat  of  the 
fish  that  glided  past  him  in  the  river,  but  he  must 
have  net  or  spear  to  catch  it;  he  wanted  to  kill  and 
eat  the  reindeer  that  bounded  past  him  into  the  depths 
of  the  forest;  but  he  was  helpless  without  weapons. 

One  of  the  first  things  which  he  needed  was  therefore 
some  sharp-edged  tool,  which  must  of  course  be  harder 
than  the  thing  he  wanted  to  cut.  He  knew  nothing  of 
the  metals,  although  some  of  them,  not  the  hardest,  lay 
near  the  surface,  and  he  therefore  made  use  of  the 
stones  lying  about.  Men  of  science  (that  is,  men  who 
know,  because  “ science”  comes  from  a  word  meaning 
to  know )  have  given  the  name  “Old  Stone  Age”  to  that 
far-off  time  when  stone,  and  such  things  as  bone,  wood, 
and  horn,  were  made  into  various  kinds  of  tools. 


39 


40 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Flints  were  chiefly  used,  because  they  were  plentiful  in 
many  parts  and  of  handy  size,  and  because,  by  a  sharp 
blow,  flakes  like  the  blade  of  a  knife  could  be  broken 
off  them.  Other  flints  were  shaped  to  a  point,  or  into 


Fig.  13.— Flint  Flakes 

a.  Old  Stone  Age;  b.  Modern  Australia;  c.  Ancient  Denmark 
(From  Tylor’s  Anthropology ) 

rough  sorts  of  hammers,  by  chipping  with  a  rounded 
pebble  or  other  stone.  Many  of  them  are  in  form  like 
an  almond,  having  a  cutting  edge  all  round.  Their 
sizes  differ,  some  being  six  inches  long  and  three  inches 
wide,  while  others  are  rather  larger. 

These  oldest  stone  weapons,  unsharpened  by  grinding 


MAN’S  FIRST  TOOLS  AND  WEAPONS 


4i 


and  unpolished,  in  making  which  man  showed  increas¬ 
ing  skill,  have  been  found  lying  on  the  surface,  and 
also,  in  large  numbers,  chiefly  in  places  known  as  the 
“drift;”  that  is,  buried  underneath  the  gravel,  clay, 


Fig.  14. — Old  Stone  Age  Flint  Picks  or  Hatchets 
(From  Tylor’s  Anthropology) 


and  stones  which  have  been  drifted  or  carried  down  by 
the  rivers  in  their  ceaseless  flow. 

As  I  have  already  told  you,  in  these  early  days  of 
man’s  history  huge  wild  animals  shared  the  habitable 
world  with  him.  There  were  mammoths,  rhinoceroses, 
hippopotamuses;  there  were  cave-lions,  cave-bears, 
cave-hyenas,  and  other  beasts  of  a  much  larger  size 
than  are  found  at  this  day. 

That  they  lived  at  the  same  time  that  man  did  is 
certain,  because  under  layers  of  earth  their  bones  have 


42 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


been  found  side  by  side  with  his,  and  with  the  weapons 
which  he  made. 

Somewhat  better-shaped  tools  and  weapons  have 
been  found  chiefly  in  caves,  which,  as  already  told 
you  (p.  20)  were  hollowed  out  by  water  ages  before 
any  living  thing  dwelt  here.  These  caves  were  used 
by  men  not  only  to  live  in,  but  also  to  bury  their 
dead  in;  and  from  the  different  remains  found  in  and 
near  them,  it  is  thought  that  feasts  were  held  when  the 
burials  took  place,  and  that  food  and  weapons  were 
put  with  the  dead  because  their  friends  thought  that 
such  things  were  needed  by  them  as  they  travelled  the 
long  journey  to  another  world. 

The  great  help  to  man  of  the  weapons  I  have  de¬ 
scribed  against  the  attacks  of  wild  animals  is  easily 
understood,  for  with  them  he  was  able  not  only  to 
defend  himself  and  his  family,  but  to  kill  the  huge 
creatures,  and  thus  get  food  for  the  mouths  that  were 
always  increasing  in  number.  That  he  did  kill  and  eat 
them,  and  clothe  himself  in  their  skins  and  make  their 
bones  into  deadly  weapons,  is  certain. 

It  is  surprising  to  think  how  many  things  the  first 
men  had  to  do  with  the  stones  which  they  roughly 
shaped.  They  cut  down  trees,  and  with  the  aid  of  fire 
scooped  them  out  to  make  canoes,  for  it  was  plain  to 


MAN’S  FIRST  TOOLS  AND  WEAPONS 


43 


them  that  wood  floated  on  the  water;  they  killed  their 
food,  cut  it  up,  broke  the  bones  to  suck  out  the  marrow; 
cracked  sea-shells  to  get  out  the  animals  inside  them, 
besides  doing  many  other  things  with  what  seem  to  us 
blunt  and  clumsy  tools. 

Following  the  Old  Stone  Age,  when  the  waters  had 
cut  a  wide  channel  between  Britain  and  Europe,  there 


Fig.  15. — -New  Stone  Age  Implements 
a.  Stone  celt  or  hatchet;  b.  flint  spearhead;  c.  scraper;  d.  arrowheads; 
e.  flint  flake  knives;  /.  core  from  which  flint  flakes  are  taken  off; 
g.  flint  awl;  h.  flint  saw;  i.  stone  hammer  head 
(From  Tylor’s  Anthropology ) 

appear  races  who  had  passed  from  the  savage  state, 
makers  of  well-formed  spearheads,  daggers,  adzes, 
hatchets,  beautifully  shaped  barbed  arrowheads,  and 
other  stone  tools  and  weapons  which  were  ground  to  a 
sharp  edge  and  polished.  These  races  are  called  men 
of  the  “New  Stone  Age,”  and  it  would  appear  that  the 
older  races,  who  were  less  able  to  defend  themselves, 
were  driven  northwards  by  them. 


44 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


While  we  are  talking  about  this  New  Stone  Age  I 
should  tell  you  that  there  are  found  in  different  parts 
of  the  world  stone  ruins  of  very  great  age  and  various 
shapes  and  sizes,  some  built  of  pillars  covered  with  a 


/v  c  f7  /> 


Fig.  16. — Stone  Axes,  etc. 

a.  Polished  stone  (England);  b.  pebble  ground  to  edge  and  mounted  in 
twig  handle  (Brazil);  c.  celt  fixed  in  wooden  club  (Ireland); 
d.  stone  axe  bored  for  handle  (England);  e.  stone  axe  (modern 
Polynesia) 

flat  stone  for  roof,  others  built  to  a  point  like  the  great 
pyramids  of  Egypt. 

These,  like  the  caves,  were  used  to  bury  the  dead  in, 
but  sometimes  they  were  built  to  mark  the  place  where 
some  great  deed  was  done,  or  where  something  very 
wonderful  had  happened.  The  heaping  together  of 
stones  was  an  easy  and  lasting  way  of  keeping  such 
things  fresh  in  men’s  minds,  just  as  we  erect  statues 


MAN’S  FIRST  TOOLS  AND  WEAPONS  45 

in  honour  of  our  great  men,  or  raise  something  in 
memory  of  their  acts  of  bravery,  nobleness,  or  charity. 
When  built  as  tombs  for  the  dead,  their  importance 


Fig.  17. — Stonehenge  as  it  Probably  Was 
(From  Boyd  Dawkin’s  Early  Man  in  Britain ) 


depended  upon  the  rank  of  the  person  to  be  laid  within 
them.  The  numerous  circles  of  standing  stones  like 
that  at  Stonehenge — are  thought  to  have  been  built  for 
worship  of  some  kind.  But  more  about  these  later  on 


VII 


DISCOVERY  OF  METALS 

In  course  of  time  some  man,  wiser  than  his  fellows 
in  virtue  of  his  quicker  eye  and  more  active  brain, 
discovered  the  metals  which  the  earth  contained. 
When  we  think  about  the  thousand  different  uses  to 
which  these  are  put — how  without  them  no  ship  big 
enough  and  strong  enough  to  cross  the  ocean  could 
have  been  built,  or  steam-engine  to  speed  us  along 
constructed — we  learn  how  enormous  is  their  value  to 
us.  It  is  certain  that  if  man  had  never  discovered  them 
he  would  have  remained  in  a  savage,  or,  at  least,  a 
barbarous  state. 

Through  all  the  story  of  his  progress  we  see  that  he 
never  went  to  the  storehouse  of  the  earth  in  vain. 
Therein  were  treasured  up  for  him  the  metals  which 
he  needed  when  stone  was  found  to  be  too  blunt  and 
soft  for  the  work  he  wished  to  do;  therein,  formed 
millions  of  years  ago,  were  the  vast  coal-beds  which 
were  laid  open  to  supply  the  cosy  fires  when  wood  grew 
scarce;  therein  were  the  great  and  it  would  seem  ex- 

46 


DISCOVERY  OF  METALS  47 

haustless  supplies  of  oil  that  give  us  light  by  night, 
and  that  are  now  largely  taking  the  place  of  steam  to 
speed  our  great  ships.  Year  after  year  brings  the  story 
of  something  new  and  wonderful  of  which  earth  has 
kept  the  secret  until  the  skill  of  man  finds  it  out. 

Gold,  which  means  the  yellow ,  bright  metal  (from 
Anglo  Saxon  gulr,  yellow),  was  most  likely  the  first 
to  be  used  by  man.  Its  glitter  would  attract  his  eye, 
as  it  is  found  in  the  sands  of  rivers,  and  sparkles  on  the 
rocks  containing  it.  It  has  to  be  mixed  with  another 
metal  to  be  made  hard  enough  for  general  use;  but  in 
its  native  state  would  be  easily  shaped  into  ornaments. 
Savage  and  polished  people  are  alike  in  this  love  of 
ornament.  Necklaces  of  shells  and  amber  made  in  the 
Stone  Age  have  been  found;  and  to  this  day  savages 
think  of  decoration  before  dress.  One  very  common 
way  of  making  themselves  smart,  as  they  think,  is  by 
marking  their  face,  body,  and  limbs  with  curved  lines, 
made  with  a  pointed  instrument,  filling  in  the  marks 
with  colour.  This  is  called  tattooing.  If  this  shows 
that  people  have  in  all  places  and  times  loved  to  look 
fine,  although  they  have  gone  through  pain  and  dis¬ 
comfort  as  the  price,  it  also  shows  that  the  love  of 
what  is  beautiful,  or  of  what  is  thought  to  be  beautiful, 
is  possessed  by  man  alone.  It  is  true  that  animals, 


48 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


especially  insects,  have  “an  eye  for  colour/’  and  that 
the  gorgeous  plumage  of  male  birds  attracts  their  mates, 
but  these  are  due  to  causes  about  which  you  will  learn 
in  books  on  natural  history. 

Copper  is  a  metal  which  came  into  early  use.  Like 
gold,  it  is  often  found  unmixed  with  anything  else,  and 
its  softness  enables  it  to  be  worked  into  various  shapes. 
Where  it  was  scarce,  and  tin  could  be  had,  fire  was 
made  use  of  to  melt  and  mix  the  two  together,  forming 
the  pretty,  hard,  and  useful  metal  called  bronze.  By 
pouring  the  molten  mass  into  a  mould  of  stone  or  sand, 
weapons  of  the  shape  wanted  would  be  made. 

The  age  when  the  metals  I  have  named  were  used  is 
called  the  “Age  of  Bronze.”  A  very  long  time  passed 
before  iron  was  smelted,  that  is,  melted  and  got  away 
from  the  ore  (or  vein  running  through  the  rock)  with 
which  it  is  found,  because  this  is  very  hard  work,  and 
needs  more  skill  than  men  had  then;  but  when  they 
succeeded  in  smelting  and  moulding  it,  it  took  the 
place  of  bronze  for  making  spearheads,  swords,  hatch¬ 
ets,  etc.,  bronze  being  used  for  the  handles  and  for 
ornaments,  many  of  which — such  as  earrings,  bracelets, 
and  hair-pins — have  been  found  among  the  ruins  in  the 
Swiss  lakes. 

Silver  and  lead  were  used  later  still. 


DISCOVERY  OF  METALS 


49 


You  have  thus  far  learnt  that  by  finding  in  river 
beds,  caverns,  and  elsewhere,  various  tools,  weapons, 
ornaments,  and  other  remains,  some  of  them  at  great 
depth,  and  all  without  doubt  made  by  man,  it  is  known 
that  he  must  have  lived  many,  many  thousands  of 
years  before  we  have  any  records  of  him  in  histories 
written  on  papyrus  (which  was  the  reed  from  which  the 
ancients  made  their  paper — hence  the  name  “ paper”)? 
or  painted  on  the  walls  of  tombs. 

By  way  of  marking  the  steps  of  man’s  progress  his 
early  history  is  divided  into  periods,  named  after  the 
things  used  in  them,  as  thus: — 

1.  The  Paleolithic  (Greek  palaios,  old,  and  UtJios,  a 

stone)  or  Old  Stone  Age. 

2.  The  Neolithic  (Greek  neos,  new,  and  lithos,  a 

stone)  or  New  Stone  Age. 

3.  The  Age  of  Bronze. 

4.  The  Age  of  Iron. 

Since  this  book  was  first  written,  not  only  have 
enormous  numbers  of  the  rudest-shaped  stone  imple¬ 
ments  been  found  in  different  and  distant  parts  of  the 
world,  but,  what  is  more  important,  the  depths  of  the 
soil  from  which  they  have  been  dug  up  show  that  man 
was  living  in  Europe  before  what  is  known  as  the  Great 
Ice  Age,  when  the  northern  hemisphere  was  covered 


50  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

with  ice.  That  may  have  been  more  than  a  million 
years  ago,  and  to  this  we  have  to  add  the  time  that 
passed  between  his  arrival  in  Europe  and  leaving  his 
first  home.  The  a01d  Stone  Age”  covers  so  vast  a 
time  that  it  has  been  divided  into  three  periods  named 
after  the  animals  that  were  then  most  numerous: 

1.  The  Hippopotamus,  when  the  climate  was  warm. 

2.  The  Mammoth,  when  the  climate  was  damp. 

3.  The  Reindeer,  when  the  climate  was  cold  and  dry. 
The  most  interesting  of  these  is  the  Reindeer,  because 
that  is  the  time  when  cave-dwellers  drew  their  clever 
pictures  of  the  animals  then  probably  most  abundant. 
Then  set  in  the  great  changes  in  land,  sea,  and  climate 
and  in  the  plants  and  animals  which  bring  us  to  the 
New  Stone  Age. 

From  what  has  thus  far  been  told  you  we  learn  that 
the  number  of  years  that  passed  between  the  chipping 
of  the  earliest  and  rudest  flints  and  the  shaping  of  the 
first  bronze  weapons  is  not  known.  The  Table  at  the 
end  of  this  chapter  gives  only  a  rough  idea  of  the 
length  of  the  earlier  periods.  We  are  sure  that  men 
used  stone  before  they  used  bronze  and  iron,  and  that 
some  tribes  wTere  in  the  Stone  Age  when  other  tribes 
had  found  out  the  value  of  metals,  just  as  there  are 
savages  in  New  Guinea  and  other  places  who  are  still 


DISCOVERY  OF  METALS 


51 


stone-using,  or  who  have  known  about  metal  tools  and 
weapons  only  through  white  men  bringing  them.  All 
the  Ages  overlap  and  run  into  each  other  like  the 
colours  of  the  rainbow. 

For  example,  although  some  of  the  lake-dwellings, 
about  which  I  have  told  you,  were  built  by  men  in  the 
New  Stone  Age,  a  very  large  number  belong  to  the 
Bronze  Age;  and  the  relics  which  have  been  brought  to 
light  show  how  decided  was  the  progress  which  man 
had  made.  The  lake-dwellers  had  learned  to  cultivate 
wheat,  to  store  up  food  for  winter  use,  to  weave  gar¬ 
ments  of  flax,  and  to  tame  the  most  useful  animals, 
such  as  the  horse,  the  sheep,  and  the  goat.  Man  had 
long  before  this  found  out  what  a  valuable  creature  the 
dog  is,  for  the  lowest  tribes  who  lived  on  the  northern 
sea-coasts  have  left  proof  of  this  in  the  bones  found 
among  the  shell  heaps.  By  the  taming  of  the  horse  he 
secured  the  animal  that  has  been  of  the  greatest  help 
in  his  progress  from  savagery,  and  that  progress  took 
one  of  the  biggest  strides  possible  when  some  shrewd 
man,  perhaps  seeing  the  idea  in  a  rolling  log,  invented 
the  wheel,  and,  after  that,  the  axle. 

In  what  is  known  as  the  Age  of  Iron  very  rapid 
progress  was  made;  and  while  the  variety  of  pottery, 
the  casting  of  bronze  coins,  the  discovery  of  glass,  and 


52 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


a  crowd  of  other  new  inventions  show  what  great 
advance  was  made  in  the  things  man  used,  they  show 
also  how  fast  man  himself  was  rising  from  a  low  state. 
He  progressed  more  in  a  few  centuries  than  he  had 
hitherto  in  many  thousands  of  years. 


TABLE  OF  STAGES  OF  CULTURE 


Later  Iron  Age . About  300  B.  C.  to  the  present  time. 

Early  Iron  Age . From  about  1,000  B.  C. 

Bronze  Age .  “  “  2,500  B.  C. 

Copper  Age .  “  “  3,00,0  B.  C. 

New  Stone  Age . Lasted  about  15,000  to  25,000  years: 


Old  Stone  Age  of  chipped  |  Lasted  about  ha)f  a  mmion  tQ  one 
tools  and  weapons;  cave  and  a  half  milIion  years. 
drawings  and  sculptures. 


Older  Stone  Age  of  beaked  j 
keel-shaped,  and  of  other 
very  rough  implements,  ■ 
called  Eoliths  (Greek  eos, 
dawn,  and  lithos,  stone).  , 


Lasted  about  two  million  years. 


VIII 


MANKIND  AS  HUNTERS,  SHEPHERDS, 
FARMERS,  TRADERS  AND  SAILORS 

From  being  a  roving,  wild,  long-haired  savage, 
gnawing  roots,  or  crouching  behind  rock  or  tree  to 
pounce  upon  his  prey,  uncertain  each  morning  whether 
night  would  not  set  in  before  he  could  get  enough  to 
eat,  man  became  keen  enough  to  learn  the  habits  and 
the  haunts  of  animals  and  to  place  them  at  his  mercy 
by  the  skill  with  which  he  could  hurl  the  big  stone 
weapons,  throw  the  spears  tipped  with  flint  or  bone, 
and,  with  his  bow,  speed  the  deadly  arrowheads. 
Travellers  tell  us  that  the  hunting  skill  of  savage  races 
shows  a  cleverness  which  is  marvellous.  They  know 
the  track,  and  cry,  and  habits  of  every  animal  in  their 
country;  they  will  track  the  opossum  by  its  claw- 
marks  on  a  tree  trunk;  put  grass  on  their  heads  to 
conceal  themselves,  then  creep  or  swim  up  to  ducks 
and  pull  them  one  by  one  under  water  and  break  their 
necks;  find  snakes  by  watching  the  movements  of  the 
butcher  birds  that  are  always  near  these  reptiles;  catch 
a  bee  and  stick  a  piece  of  feather  on  it,  let  it  go,  and 

53 


54 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


then  follow  its  flight  until  the  hive  and  honey  are 
found;  use  one  fish  to  catch  another;  tell  a  turtle  nest 
with  fresh  eggs  from  one  with  stale  eggs  by  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  the  sand;  in  short,  find  food  where  a  white  man 
would  starve  to  death.  So  clever  are  they  at  tracking, 
that  they  can  not  only  follow  an  animal  to  its  hiding- 
place,  but  even  know  the  footprints  of  every  other 
member  of  the  tribe. 

One  of  the  many  things  that  set  us  wondering  is  how 

and  when  man  domesticated,  or  made  house-friends  of, 

.> 

as  we  may  say  (Lat.  domus,  a  house),  the  creatures 
that  ran  wild  and  savage.  Anyway,  some  part  of  man¬ 
kind,  finding  how  useful  certain  animals  were  for  the 
milk  and  flesh  which  they  gave  as  food,  and  for  the 
skins,  especially  of  their  young  ones,  which  could  be 
made  into  soft  clothing,  had  learnt  to  tame  and  gather 
them  into  flocks  and  herds,  moving  with  them  from 
place  to  place  wherever  most  grass  and  herbs  could  be 
had.  These  men  were  the  first  shepherds  or  herdsmen, 
living  a  nomad  (which  means  wandering)  life,  dwelling 
in  tents  because  they  could  be  easily  removed. 

While  some  clung  to  the  shepherd’s  or  herdsman’s 
life,  others  passed  in  the  slow  course  of  time  to  a  more 
settled  state,  becoming  farmers  or  tillers  of  the  earth. 
(The  word  earth  is  said  to  mean  the  ploughed .) 


MANKIND  AS  HUNTERS,  SHEPHERDS,  ETC.  55 

At  an  early  stage  man  had  found  out  what  seeds, 
roots,  and  fruits  could  be  eaten,  and  had  noticed  that 
when  seeds  were  put  into  the  soil  they  would  grow. 
So  by  steps  that  can  no  longer  be  traced,  he  learned  to 
till  the  ground  and  store  his  supply  of  corn  and  maize 
and  rice  and  all  other  food-yielding  plants.  Wherever 
tillage  is  found  among  savages  today,  the  implements 
of  the  primitive  husbandman  are  still  used.  Pointed 
sticks  serve  the  purpose  of  digging  up  roots,  and  of  a 
hoe  in  turning  the  soil.  From  the  hoe  came  the  inven¬ 
tion  of  the  plough,  and  the  primitive  spade  is  a  flat 
bladed  piece  of  wood. 

In  out-of-the-way  places  in  civilized  countries  such 
rude  implements  are  still  used  by  the  peasantry.  For 
the  knowledge  of  metals  as  implements,  compared  with 
these,  is  late.  As  farming  caused  men  to  settle  in 
one  place,  they  would  not  be  content  with  such  rude 
dwellings  as  sufficed  in  the  Stone  Age,  or  with  tents, 
like  the  nomads,  but  would  have  their  houses  well  built, 
with  stables  and  barns  in  which  to  lodge  their  cattle 
and  store  up  their  corn. 

All  the  sunny  days  would  be  wanted  for  their  field 
work,  and  they  would  therefore  be  glad  to  employ 
others  who  could  build  their  houses  and  make  their 
.tools.  Thus,  one  after  another,  different  trades  would 


5^ 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


arise  and  be  carried  on,  which  would  bring  people 
together  for  mutual  help  and  gain;  thus  houses  would 
multiply  into  villages,  villages  would  become  towns, 
and  towns  would  grow  into  cities. 

The  first  sailor  was  the  man  who  sat  on  a  floating 
tree-trunk,  paddled  with  his  hands,  or  waved  a  leafy 
bough  as  a  sail.  The  next  step  was,  by  the  help  of  a 
stone  axe  and  fire,  to  hollow  out  the  trunk  (our  word 
“ship”  comes  from  the  Greek  “skapto,”  to  dig.)  So, 
by  slow  stages,  man  advanced  in  the  beautiful  art  of 
shipbuilding;  the  canoe  being  the  remote  forerunner 
of  the  splendid  liner.  For  many  ages  he  dared  not 
venture  upon  the  wide  ocean,  but  crept  along  the 
coast,  sailing  at  night  by  the  stars,  whose  places  he 
watched,  and  not  till  the  compass,  with  its  needle 
always  pointing  to  the  north,  was  invented,  would  he 
venture  out  of  sight  of  land.  Some  time  passed  before 
sailors  would  use  the  compass;  they  thought  that  so 
uncanny  a  thing  was  moved  by  some  evil  spirit. 

The  different  classes  of  people  would  unite  together 
for  protection  against  their  enemies,  and  either  all 
would  learn  the  art  of  war,  or  would  select  some  of  the 
bravest  and  strongest  among  them  to  become  the  army 
to  defend  the  land.  Some  one  man,  the  best  and 
ablest  they  could  find,  would  be  chosen  to  carry  out 


MANKIND  AS  HUNTERS,  SHEPHERDS,  ETC.  57 


the  laws  which  the  people  agreed  to  make  for  the 
well-being  of  all. 

We  have  seen  that  on  man’s  first  entrance  into  life 
he  found  it  one  continued  battle  against  forces  of  all 
kinds,  and  the  only  law  that  ruled  was  the  law  of 
might.  Besides  ability  to  defend  himself  by  sheer  force 
or  cunning,  man  possessed  the  power  of  injuring  and 
of  doing  wanton  cruelty  and  mischief  for  its  own  sake, 
and  of  this  power  all  history  shows  us  he  made  sad  use. 
Lower  in  this  than  the  beast  which  slays  to  satisfy 
its  hunger,  man  killed  his  fellow-man  to  satisfy  his 
lawless  ambition,  and  committed  ravages  which  cen¬ 
turies  of  labour  have  been  unable  to  repair.  Hence 
in  early  as  well  as  in  later  times,  the  bad  passions  and 
jealousies  of  men  broke  out  and  caused  the  desolating 
wars  which  have  darkened  so  many  bright  spots  in 
this  world.  It  is  certain  that  the  tillers  of  the  soil  and 
the  dwellers  in  towns  would  be  more  inclined  to  a 
peaceful  and  quiet  life  than  the  roving  tribes,  or  than 
the  chieftains  who,  with  their  followers  and  herds  and 
flocks,  would  often  seek  to  gain  by  force  what  they 
coveted. 

Not  that  these  were  always  to  blame,  but  they 
would  be  the  more  likely  of  the  two  to  “pick  a  quarrel.” 
Disputes  arose  between  them  about  the  ownership  of 


S8 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


the  land;  the  nomads,  who  loved  the  lazy  ease  of  a 
pastoral  life  more  than  the  hard  work  of  tool-making 
or  house-building,  would  want  to  share  some  of  the 
good  fruits  which  the  farmers  were  making  the  earth 
to  yield,  or  some  of  the  bright,  sharp-edged  weapons 
which  the  metal-workers  were  moulding,  and  in  various 
ways  “bad  blood,”  as  people  call  it,  would  be  stirred, 
which  would  end  in  fighting.  The  stronger  would 
conquer  the  weaker,  seize  upon  or  lay  waste  their  land, 
and  make  slaves  of  such  of  the  prisoners  as  they 
thought  it  worth  while  to  spare.  It  was  an  age,  like 
many  ages  since,  when  no  tender  feelings  ruled  in  the 
heart  of  man,  but  when  the  “golden  rule”  was  not; 
and  the  harsh,  stern  law  was  in  force 

“That  they  shall  take  who  have  the  power, 

And  they  shall  keep  who  can.” 

But  wars  do  not  last  for  ever,  and  men  would  find 
that  it  was  after  all  better  to  live  in  friendship  and 
peace.  So  they  would  trade  together;  the  earth  would 
yield  the  farmer  more  food  than  he  needed,  and  he 
would  be  glad  to  barter  with  it,  giving  some  of  it  to 
the  herdsman  in  exchange  for  cattle,  and  to  the  tool- 
maker  in  exchange  for  tools,  each  of  whom  would  be 
very  glad  to  trade  with  him. 


MANKIND  AS  HUNTERS,  SHEPHERDS,  ETC.  59 


Then,  as  intercourse  grew,  it  was  found  very  awk¬ 
ward  and  cumbersome  to  carry  things  from  place  to 
place,  especially  if  they  were  now  and  then  not  very 
much  wanted,  and  people  would  agree  to  make  use  of 
something  which  was  handy  to  carry,  steady  in  value, 
and  that  did  not  spoil  by  keeping.  So,  whenever  they 
could,  men  fixed  upon  pieces  of  metal,  first  casting 
bronze  into  coins  and  then  using  gold  and  silver,  which, 
being  scarcer  than  other  metals,  are  worth  more.  We 
learn  from  the  paintings  at  Thebes,  in  Egypt,  and  from 
other  sources  of  ancient  history,  that  gold  and  silver 
were  counted  as  wealth  in  early  times.  Abraham  is 
said  in  the  Book  of  Genesis  to  have  been  “very  rich 
in  cattle,  in  silver,  and  in  gold.”  The  word  “pecu¬ 
niary,”  used  in  speaking  of  a  man’s  riches,  comes  from 
the  Latin  word  pecus,  which  means  cattle,  and  shows 
that  formerly  a  man’s  wealth  was  sometimes  reckoned 
by  the  cattle  he  had.  And  when  copper  was  used  as 
money  instead  of  cattle,  it  was  stamped  with  images  of 
cows  or  sheep.  Our  word  “fee”  comes  from  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  word  meaning  both  “money”  and  “cattle,” 
wherein  is  another  of  the  proofs  of  the  meaning  that 
words  hold.  They  have  been  called,  with  truth,  fossil 
history,  and  fossil  poetry;  when  you  break  them  up, 
they  reveal,  like  fossils,  the  story  of  their  origin. 


LANGUAGE 


The  beginnings  of  language  lie  in  man’s  needs  to 
make  known  his  thoughts  and  wants  to  his  fellow-men. 
Animals  utter  love-calls  and  danger-cries  to  one  an¬ 
other,  which  they  understand,  and  so  far  they  have  a 
language,  but  man  alone  has  the'  power  of  articulate 
speech,  that  is,  of  uttering  distinct  letters,  and  the 
syllables  which  make  up  words.  Our  brains  are  the 
organs  of  our  minds,  and  our  sense-organs  are  the 
wires  which  telegraph  to  our  brains  all  that  we  see  and 
hear  and  feel.  And  in  one  part  of  our  brain  is  the 
“speech  centre,”  which  is  not  found  in  the  ape  nor  in 
dumb  idiots.  It  is  not  fully  formed  in  babies  till  they 
are  a  year  old,  as  we  may  guess  from  their  being  .unable 
to  talk.  It  was  when  man  uttered  the  first  articulate 
word  about  anything  that  the  gulf  which  separates 
him  from  all  other  animals  was  fixed.  Like  aught  else 
that  he  has  invented  or  improved,  language  has  grown 
from  simple  materials;  from  a  few  sounds  there  have 
been  developed  the  rich  and  varied  languages  of  past 


LANGUAGE 


61 


and  present  civilized  peoples.  When  we  “ analyse”  or 
“loosen”  words  we  see  that  they  have  come  from  root- 
sounds,  very  many  of  which  are  imitations  of  natural 
sounds  and  cries,  as  when  we  say  the  clock  “ ticks,”  or 
name  the  “ cuckoo”  and  the  “peewit”  after  their  cry 
or  love-note.  The  higher  languages  are  always  growing; 
intercourse  between  peoples  causes  them  to  use  one 
another’s  words,  and,  moreover,  new  inventions  need 
new  words  to  describe  them.  One  of  the  most  delight¬ 
ful  books  to  study  is  a  dictionary  that  gives  us  the 
roots  of  words,  that  is,  whence  they  came  and  why 
they  were  chosen.  We  shall  learn  from  this  that 
nearly  all  the  words  that  we  use  to  explain  or  describe 
things  have  come  from  something  real.  For  example, 
people  who  treat  you  in  a  haughty  way  are  called 
“supercilious,”  which  means  “raising  the  eyebrows.” 
That  word  comes  from  the  Latin,  super ,  above,  and 
cilium ,  an  eyebrow.  When  we  “apprehend”  anything, 
the  word  really  means  that  we  grasp,  or  “lay  hold”  of 
it;  the  words  “abominate”  and  “ominous”  also  come 
from  the  Latin,  both  meaning  a  thing  of  ill  omen,  thus 
preserving  record  of  a  time  when  people  believed  in 
warning  signs  of  good  or  evil.  To  “consider”  was  to 
consult  the  stars  (Latin  con ,  together,  and  sidus,  a 
constellation);  while  to  call  a  thing  “trivial”  meant 


62 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


anything  common  enough  to  be  picked  up  at  three 
cross  ways  (Lat.  tres,  three,  and  via,  a  way).  A  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  sources  of  words  often  saves  us  from 
blunders  and  confusions,  as,  for  example,  when  we  talk 
of  the  Mosaic  books,  we  mean  those  in  the  Bible  which 
were  once  believed  to  be  written  by  Moses,  while 
inlaid  floors  and  walls  are  called  “ mosaic”  from  Mousa , 
a  muse,  because  the  Muses — the  Greek  goddesses  of 
song,  music,  and  dancing,  etc. — were  often  figured  on 
them. 

Man  at  first  had  very  few  words,  and  those  were 
short  ones,  and  in  making  known  his  thoughts  to  others 
he  also  used  signs — “ gesture-language,”  as  it  has  been 
called.  We  do  the  same  now;  for  in  shaking  the  head 
to  mean  “no,”  in  nodding  it  to  mean  “yes,”  and  in 
shaking  hands  in  proof  that  we  are  joined  in  friendship, 
we  speak  in  gesture  and  would  have  to  use  a  great 
deal  if  we  were  travelling  in  some  country  of  which  we 
did  not  know  the  language.  There  are  very  few  things 
that  cannot  be  expressed  by  signs  or  gestures,  and 
among  the  ancients  entire  plays  were  performed  by 
persons  called  pantomimes  (which  word  means  imita¬ 
tors  of  all  things ,)  who  acted  not  by  speaking,  but 
wholly  by  mimicry.  A  story  is  told  of  a  king  who  was 
in  Rome  when  Nero  was  emperor,  and  who,  having 


LANGUAGE 


63 


seen  the  wonderful  mimicry  of  a  pantomime,  begged 
him  as  a  present,  so  that  he  might  make  use  of  him 
to  have  dealings  with  the  nations  whose  languages  he 
did  not  know.  We  have  now  so  many  words,  and  are 
always  adding  to  the  number,  so  that  we  need  use 
signs  but  very  little,  if  at  all. 

Just  as  all  the  races  of  mankind  probably  have  come 
from  one  common  home,  so  the  different  languages 
which  they  speak  have  flowed  from  one  source. 

There  are  three  leading  streams  of  language,  and  I 
shall  have  to  quote  a  few  hard  names  in  telling  you 
about  them.  But  they  are  worth  remembering. 

It  was  thought  some  years  ago  that  Hebrew,  the 
language  in  which  the  sacred  books  of  the  Jews  (known 
to  us  as  the  Old  Testament)  are  written,  was  the  par¬ 
ent,  so  to  speak,  of  all  other  languages,  but  it  has  since 
been  found  through  tracing  words  to  their  early  forms, 
or  roots,  that 

i.  Sanskrit,  in  which  the  sacred  books  of  the  Brah¬ 
mans,  known  as  the  Vedas,  are  written,  and 
which  was  a  spoken  tongue  in  the  time  of 
Solomon  and  Alexander  the  Great,  but  which 
has  been  a  “dead”  or  unspoken  language  for 
more  than  two  thousand  years;  Zend,  in  which 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Parsees  (or  so-called 


64 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


fire-worshippers)  known  as  the  Zend-Avesta, 
are  written;  Greek,  the  language  of  Greece; 
Latin,  the  language  of  the  ancient  Romans; 
(neither  Greece  nor  Rome  had  any  sacred  books, 
poems  and  epics  taking  their  place); 
and  nearly  all  the  other  dialects  and  languages  of 
India  and  Europe,  are  children  of  the  Indo-European, 
or  Aryan  family  of  speech,  so-called,  it  is  said,  from  a 
Hindu  word  meaning  “noble”  applied  to  the  worship¬ 
pers  of  the  gods  of  the  Brahmans. 

2.  The  second  division  of  languages  includes  the 

Hebrew;  the  Arabic,  in  which  beautiful  language 
the  Koran,  the  sacred  book  of  the  Moham- 
medans,  is  written;  and  the  languages  on  the 
very  old  monuments  of  Phoenicia,  Babylon, 
Assyria,  and  Carthage. 

3.  The  third  division  includes  the  remaining  lan¬ 

guages  scattered  the  world  over;  those  of  China, 
Tibet,  and  Farther  India  appear  to  stand  apart 
as  relics  of  the  first  forms  of  human  speech, 
being  mainly  made  up  of  words  of  one  syllable. 

The  ancient  language  of  Britain  is  now  found  only  in 
some  parts  of  Wales,  Ireland,  and  Scotland,  and  the 
foundation  of  our  present  language,  which  now  contains 
above  one  hundred  thousand  words,  is  the  same  as  that 


LANGUAGE 


65 


spoken  on  the  coast  of  Germany.  It  was  brought  over 
by  Angles,  Saxons,  (hence  Anglo-Saxons),  Jutes,  and 
other  tribes  from  the  Continent.  Anglo-Saxon  is  the 
mother-tongue  of  our  present  English,  to  which  in 
various  forms  Greek,  Latin  and  other  words  have 
been  and  are  being  added. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  help  you  to  see  the  impor¬ 
tance  and  interest  attaching  to  the  study  of  the  wonder¬ 
ful  faculty  by  which  we  are  able  to  talk  to  people  in 
various  languages,  and  read  in  ancient  books  the  story 
of  man’s  past  thoughts  and  deeds.  I  want  to  lead  you 
on  to  feel  and  know  that  the  study  of  words  is  a  de¬ 
lightful  way  of  spending  time,  and  that  the  dictionary, 
which  is  thought  by  many  people  to  be  a  dry  book,  is 
full  of  poetry  and  history  and  beauty  locked  up  in  its 
words,  which  the  key  of  the  wise  will  open. 


WRITING 


The  use  of  writing  is  to  put  some  thing  before  the 
eye  in  such  a  way  that  its  meaning  may  be  known  at 
a  glance,  and  the  earliest  way  of  doing  this  was  by  a 
picture.  Picture-writing  was  thus  used  for  many  ages, 
and  is  still  found  among  savage  races  as,  for  example, 
the  Bushmen  of  South  Africa  and  the  Australian  na¬ 
tives.  On  rocks,  stone  slabs,  trees,  and  tombs,  it  was 
the  device  employed  to  record  an  event,  or  tell  some 
message. 

In  the  course  of  time,  instead  of  this  tedious  mode, 

men  learned  to  write  signs  for  certain  words  or  sounds. 

Then  the  next  step  was  to  separate  the  word  into 

letters,  and  to  agree  upon  certain  signs  to  always 

represent  certain  letters,  and  hence  arose  alphabets. 

The  shape  of  the  letters  of  alphabets  is  thought  by 

some  to  bear  slight  traces  of  early  picture-writing. 

To  show  you  what  is  meant,  Aleph,  the  first  letter  of 

the  Hebrew  alphabet,  means  an  ox,  and  the  sign  for 

that  letter  was  an  outline  of  an  ox’s  head.  Is  it  not 

66 


' 


WRITING 


Fig.  i  8. — (Carved  on  a  Piece  of 
Walrus  Tooth) 

i.  A  native  is  resting  against  his 
house;  2.  A  reindeer;  3.  One  man 
shooting  at  another  with  an  arrow; 
4.  Expedition  in  a  dog  sledge;  5.  Boat 
with  sail  and  paddle;  6.  A  dog  sledge 
with  the  sun  overhead,  perhaps  to 
indicate  that  summer  has  come;  7.  A 
sacred  lodge.  The  figures  at  each 
outer  corner  represent  young  men 
armed  with  bows  and  arrows  to 
keep  off  others  from  the  sacred 
place.  Inside  some  members  of  the 
lodge  are  dancing  round  a  fire; 
8.  Pine  tree  up  which  a  porcupine  is 
climbing;  9.  Another  pine  tree,  from 
which  a  woodpecker  is  extracting 
insects;  10.  Bear;  n,  12.  Men  driv¬ 
ing  fish  into,  13,  the  net,  a  captured 
whale,  with  harpoon  and  line  at¬ 
tached,  above  them. 


Figs.  19 A,  19B. — Indian  Grave 
Posts 

Fig.  19A  shows  the  dead  war¬ 
rior’s  totem  (see  p.  104),  a  tor¬ 
toise,  and  beside  it  a  headless 
man,  which  is  a  common  symbol 
of  death  among  Indian  tribes. 
Below  the  trunk  are  three  marks 
of  honour.  The  next  and  more 
elaborated  figure  (19B)  records  the 


F 


68 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


achievements  of  Shingabawassin,  a  celebrated  chief  of  the  St.  Mary’s 
band.  His  totem,  the  crane,  is  shown  reversed.  The  three  marks 
on  the  left  of  the  totem  represent  important  general  treaties  of 
peace  to  which  he  had  been  a  party;  the  six  strokes  on  the  right 
probably  indicate  the  number  of  big  battles  which  he  fought. 
The  pipe  appears  to  be  a  symbol  of  peace,  and  the  hatchet  a 
symbol  of  war. 


Fig.  20. — Indian  Love  Song 


i.  Represents  the  lover;  2.  he  is  singing  and  beating  a  magic  drum;  in 
3  he  surrounds  himself  with  a  secret  lodge,  denoting  the  effects  of 
his  necromancy;  in  4,  he  and  his  mistress  are  joined  by  a  single 
arm  to  show  that  they  are  as  one;  in  5  she  is  on  an  island;  in  6  she 
sleeps,  and  as  he  sings,  his  magical  power  reaches  her  heart;  and 
in  7  the  heart  itself  is  shown.  To  each  of  these  figures  a  verse  of 
the  song  corresponds. 

1.  It  is  my  painting  that  makes  me  a  god. 

2.  Hear  the  sounds  of  my  voice,  of  my  song;  it  is  my  voice. 

3.  I  cover  myself  in  sitting  down  by  her. 

4.  I  can  make  her  blush,  because  I  hear  all  she  says  of  me. 

5.  Were  she  on  a  distant  island  I  could  make  her  swim  over. 

6.  Though  she  were  far  off,  even  on  the  other  hemisphere. 

7.  I  speak  to  your  heart. 


WRITING 


69 


Wings  are  given  to  the  warrior,  1,  to  show  that  he  is  swift-footed; 
in  2  he  stands  under  the  morning  star,  and  in  3  under  the  centre 
of  heaven,  with  his  war-club  and  rattle;  in  4,  the  eagles  of  carnage 
are  flying  round  the  sky;  in  5,  the  warrior  lies  slain  on  the  battle¬ 
field;  while  in  6  he  appears  as  a  spirit  in  the  sky.  The  words  of 
the  song  are  as  follows: — 

1.  I  wish  to  have  the  body  of  the  swiftest  bird. 

2.  Every  day  I  look  at  you;  the  half  of  the  day  I  sing  my  song. 

3.  I  throw  away  my  body. 

4.  The  birds  take  a  flight  in  the  air. 

5.  Full  happy  am  I  to  be  numbered  with  the  slain. 

6.  The  spirits  on  high  repeat  my  name. 


*  Figs  19A,  19B,  20,  21  are  copied  from  Tylor’s  Early  History  of 
Mankind;  the  originals  are  in  Schoolcraft’s  Indian  Tribes. 


7° 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Fig.  22. — Indian  Petition  to  the  United  States  Congress 
(From  Dorman’s  Primitive  Superstitions) 

Fig.  22  is  a  copy  of  a  petition  sent  by  a  group  of  Indian  tribes  to  the 
United  States  Congress  for  fishing  rights  in  certain  small  lakes 
near  Lake  Superior.  The  leading  clan  is  represented  by  Oshca- 
bawis,  whose  totem  is  i,  the  crane;  then  follow  2,  Waimitligzhig; 
3,  Ogemagee;  and  4,  a  third,  all  of  the  marten  totem;  5,  Little 
Elk,  of  the  bear  totem;  6,  belongs  to  the  manfish  totem;  7,  to  the 
catfish  totem. 

From  the  eye  and  heart  of  each  of  the  animals  runs  a  line  connecting 
them  with  the  eye  and  heart  of  the  crane  to  show  that  they  are 
all  of  one  mind,  and  the  eye  of  the  crane  has  also  a  line  connecting 
it  with  the  lakes  on  which  the  tribes  want  to  fish,  while  another 
line  runs  towards  Congress. 


WRITING 


7i 


wonderful  that  the  hundred  thousand  words  that  make 
up  our  English  language  are  composed  of  only  twenty- 
six  letters  variously  arranged? 

The  signs  used  by  astronomers  for  the  sun,  moon, 
and  planets;  the  signs  I,  II,  III,  for  one,  two,  and 
three;  are  proofs  that  if  picture-writing  is  of  value  to 
man  in  a  civilized  state,  it  must  have  been  of  greater 
value  to  him,  and  much  more  used  by  him,  the  farther 
we  search  back.  We  still  speak  of  signing  our  name, 
although  we  have  ceased  to  use  a  sign  or  mark,  as  was 
done  when  few  could  write. 

A  wise  man  has  said  that  “what  is  ever  seen  is 
never  seen,”  by  which  he  meant  that  we  are  blind  to 
the  importance  of  things  near  to  us  and  in  daily  use. 
Hence  it  is  that  few  pause  to  think  what  an  enormous 
boon  the  invention  of  writing  has  been  to  man.  With¬ 
out  it  he  could  never  have  risen  much  above  the 
savage  state.  We  could  have  had  only  shreds  of  un¬ 
certain  knowledge  about  the  past:  the  thoughts  of  the 
good  and  great  must  have  perished:  no  news  from  near 
or  far  could  have  reached  us  save  by  word  of  mouth, 
no  letters  could  be  sent  to,  or  received  from,  absent 
friends — what  a  blank  our  life  would  have  been! 
Until  printing  was  invented,  books  were  in  manu¬ 
script,  that  is,  written  by  hand  (Latin  manus,  the  hand, 


72 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


and  scribo,  to  write)  and  therefore,  very  costly.  It  is 
the  art  of  printing  that  has  made  the  spread  of  knowl¬ 
edge  possible,  and  put  it  in  the  power  of  the  poorest 
to  buy  famous  books  for  a  small  sum. 


XI 


COUNTING  AND  MEASURING 

The  art  of  counting  is  slowly  learned  by  savage  tribes, 
and  at  this  day  some  are  found  who  cannot  reckon 
beyond  four,  or  who,  if  they  can,  have  no  words  for 
higher  figures. 

All  over  the  world  the  fingers  have  been  and  are  used 
as  counters,  and  among  many  tribes  the  word  for 
“hand”  and  “five”  is  the  same.  This  may  be  taken 
as  a  common  mode  by  which  the  savage  reckons: — 

One  hand  .  .  .  .  .5 

Two  hands  or  half  a  man  .  .  10 

Two  hands,  and  one  foot  .  .  15 

Hands  and  feet,  or  one  man  .  .  20 

We  do  the  same,  as  shown  in  the  word  digit,  which 
is  the  name  for  any  of  the  figures  from  one  to  nine, 
and  comes  from  the  Latin  digitus ,  meaning  a  finger; 
while  counting  by  fives  and  tens  enters  into  all  our 
dealings,  as  shown  in  the  word  decimal  (from  the 
Latin  decern ,  ten).  One  early  way  of  counting  was  by 
pebbles,  the  Latin  for  which  is  calculi ,  and  we  pre- 

73 


74 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


serve  this  fact  in  our  use  of  the  word  calculate ;  just  as, 
when  we  tie  a  knot  in  our  handkerchief  to  remind  us 
of  something  wTe  fear  to  forget,  we  are  copying  the 
ancient  plan  of  counting  with  knotted  cords.  Besides 
the  fingers,  other  parts  of  the  body,  as  their  names 
show,  were  used  for  measuring.  We  speak  of  a  man 
as  six  feet  tall;  of  a  horse  as  so  many  hands  high; 
fathom ,  that  is,  the  space  of  both  arms  extended,  comes 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  fcethem,  bosom;  span  is  the 
space  from  the  end  of  the  thumb  to  that  of  the  little 
finger  when  the  hand  is  outstretched;  both  ell  and 
cubit  are  from  Latin  words  for  the  elbow.  When  we 
come  to  measurements  in  space,  as  lines,  surfaces  and 
solids,  we  have  to  learn  geometry ,  or  earth-measurement , 
as  that  word  means. 


XII 


GAMES,  SONG,  MUSIC  AND  DANCING 

“To  everything  there  is  a  season,”  says  an  old 
writer  called  the  Preacher,  “a  time  to  weep  and  a  time 
to  laugh.”  For  these  are  the  outcome  and  outlet  of 
feelings  which,  when  we  are  young,  rule  our  lives  more 
than  reason  does.  The  wiser,  as  they  grow  older, 
learn  to  control  their  feelings,  and  thereby  avoid 
thoughtless  and  harmful  acts,  but  the  lesson  is  often 
a  hard  one  to  learn. 

To  love  or  hate,  to  be  glad  or  sorry,  these  are  inborn 
in  us  all,  as  they  are,  in  lesser  degree,  in  animals.  I 
do  not  think  that  man  in  the  Stone  Age  had  a  merry 
life,  but  some  spare  time  came  to  him  between  work 
and  sleep,  and  there  were  the  little  children  to  care  for 
and  amuse.  We  may  get  a  rough  sort  of  guess  about 
this  in  learning  how  savages  now-a-days  amuse  them¬ 
selves  in  games  and  sports  and  songs  and  dances.  In  their 
games  they  often  mimic  serious  work,  as  boys  do  when 
they  play  at  soldiers,  and  as  do  girls  also,  when  they 
play  at  “make-believe”  mothers  with  their  dolls. 

75 


76 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


And  then  cricket  and  other  field  sports  are  mimic 
warfare,  in  which  one  side  tries  to  beat  the  other. 
Greatest  of  all  games  were  the  Olympian  in  Ancient 
Greece,  which  sprang  from  religion.  To  be  a  winner  in 
these  was  not  so  much  to  gain  money  as  the  praises  of  re¬ 
nowned  poets,  singing  how  “he  that  overcome th  hath  for 
the  sake  of  those  games  a  sweet  tranquillity  throughout 
his  life  for  evermore.”  Almost  all  over  the  world  we 
find  the  game  called  “cat’s  cradle,”  in  which  a  piece  of 
string  is  looped  to  make  figures  imitating  various  things, 
even  to  the  telling  of  stories;  and  there  are  other 
games  that  are  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  years  old. 

Savages,  as  is  said  of  poets,  sing  because  they  cannot 
help  it,  and  their  earliest  songs,  which  have  love  and 
war  and  the  deeds  of  brave  men  as  their  theme,  are 
chanted  by  the  tribe,  and  handed  down  from  one 
generation  to  another.  One  of  the  oldest  songs  of  the 
kind  is  in  the  book  of  Genesis  (IV.  18)  where  Lamech 
says  “I  have  slain  a  man  to  my  wounding,  and  a 
young  man  to  my  hurt.”  And  in  the  days  before  writ¬ 
ing  was  invented,  when  memories  were  not  crammed 
with  so  many  things,  songs  of  very  great  length  were 
learned  by  heart  and  taught  by  fathers  to  their  chil¬ 
dren,  or  sung  by  bards  in  the  halls  of  chiefs  and  by  the 
firesides  of  the  people.  As  an  example  of  this,  about 


GAMES,  SONG,  MUSIC  AND  DANCING  77 

eighty  years  ago,  a  learned  man  travelled  all  over  Fin¬ 
land  collecting  a  number  of  old  ballads  which  were 
sung  by  wandering  runoias,  as  they  were  called.  And 
when  he  came  to  put  these  songs  together  he  found  that 
each  fitted  into  its  place  as  part  of  a  great  epic  poem 
named  the  Kalevala ,  or  “land  of  heroes,”  whose  theme 
was  the  deeds  of  the  chiefs  and  warriors  of  that  north¬ 
ern  land.  For  how  many  centuries  this  had  passed 
among  the  people  in  unwritten  form  no  one  can  say. 
It  was  from  the  Kalevala  that  Longfellow  borrowed  the 
metre  of  his  poem  Hiawatha. 

All  our  musical  instruments  retain  traces  of  their 
earliest  forms.  A  great  poet  who  lived  nearly  two 
thousand  years  ago  says  that  “the  whistlings  of  the 
zephyr  (that  is,  the  west  wind)  through  the  hollow  of 
reeds  first  taught  men  to  blow  into  the  hollow  stalk.” 
So  it  is  from  the  reed  that  we  get  the  flute,  the  trumpet 
and  the  organ.  The  drum  is  the  little-altered  tom-tom 
of  the  savage,  a  circular  hollow,  across  each  end  of 
which  a  skin  is  stretched;  and  the  harp  has  its  begin¬ 
nings  in  the  twang  of  the  drawn  bowstring.  Thence, 
too,  we  get  the  violin  and  the  piano,  which,  as  a 
“grand,”  is  simply  a  harp  laid  flat  in  a  case,  the  ham¬ 
mers  of  the  keyboard  taking  the  place  of  the  fingers 
that  pull  the  harpstrings. 


78 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Dancing  is  the  oldest  of  all  the  ways  in  which 
savages  and,  indeed,  people  everywhere,  give  vent  to 
their  feelings.  Among  savages  everything  is  an  excuse 


Fig.  23. — Development  of  the  Harp 

a.  Music-bow  with  gourd  resonator  (South  Africa);  b.  ancient  harp 
(Egypt);  c.  mediaeval  harp  (England).  (From Tylor’s  Anthropology) 

for  a  dance.  When  they  marry,  or  have  children,  or 
go  to  war,  or  eat  their  slain  enemies,  or  want  help 
from  their  gods,  or  seek  to  please  them,  they  dance. 
And  they  make  a  very  serious  business  of  it;  it  is  not 
with  them,  as  with  us  in  our  village  or  ballroom  dances, 
mere  fun.  Dancing  in  its  beginning  was  a  form  of 


GAMES,  SONG,  MUSIC  AND  DANCING 


79 


worship.  Among  all  savage  tribes  the  medicine-men 
or  priests  dance  before  their  gods,  and  so  it  has  been 
in  every  age.  We  read  in  the  second  Book  of  Samuel 
(VI.  14)  that  King  “  David  danced  before  the  Lord 
with  all  his  might and  other  ancient  books  tell  how 
the  processions  moved  with  song  and  dance  to  the 
temples  of  Rome,  of  Greece  and  of  Babylon.  To  this 
day,  at  the  feast  of  Corpus  Christi  in  Seville,  there  is  a 
ritual  dance  before  the  high  altar  of  the  Cathedral, 
and  at  Echternach  in  Germany  the  people  dance  in  the 
streets  once  a  year  to  celebrate  the  bringing  of  the 
Christian  religion  by  Saint  Willibrord.  A  missionary 
tells  a  recent  story  of  Scotch  settlers  in  Prince  Ed¬ 
ward’s  Island  who  “ danced  before  the  Lord”  in  their 
church,  and  he  says  that  it  was  so  “ catching”  that  it 
would  have  taken  but  a  little  to  have  made  him  join 
them. 

It  is  their  war-dances  that  beget  most  excitement  in 
savages,  when  with  yells  and  whoops  and  hideous 
grimaces,  beating  of  drums  with  their  hands  and  of 
the  ground  with  their  feet,  they  work  themselves  into 
fury  and  frenzy,  the  women  goading  them  on,  and 
greeting  them  on  their  homecoming.  So  they  did  in 
Old  Testament  times,  when  Miriam  and  the  other 
women  went  out  with  timbrels  and  dances  to  meet 


8o 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Moses  on  his  victory  over  the  Egyptians.  (Exodus 
XV.  20.)  When  “David  was  returned  from  the 
slaughter  of  the  Philistines  the  women  came  out  of  all 
the  cities  of  Israel  singing  and  dancing.”  (I.  Samuel 
XVIII.  6.) 

All  over  the  savage  world  a  number  of  magic  dances 
are  performed  to  secure  supply  of  food.  The  dancers 
deck  themselves  with  feathers  to  look  like  birds,  or 
with  leaves  to  look  like  trees,  or  wear  skins  and  horns 
to  look  like  buffalos,  and  then  dance  “buffalo,”  mimick¬ 
ing  hunting,  fishing,  or  sowing,  in  the  belief  that  this 
will  bring  them  food.  As  with  customs  everywhere, 
these  have  never  died  out.  In  ancient  Rome  the 
priests  danced  round  the  city  .walls  at  the  season  of 
tilling  the  ground;  in  ancient  Mexico  the  women 
tossed  their  hair  as  they  danced  so  that  the  maize 
might  have  long  wavy  tassels,  and  to  this  day,  in 
Europe,  peasant  maidens  dance  and  jump  high  to 
make  the  flax  grow.  These  and  a  heap  of  allied  cus¬ 
toms  come  under  what  is  called  “sympathetic  magic,” 
which  means  imitating  a  thing  to  bring  about  a  certain 
effect,  as,  for  example,  when  in  times  of  drought,  the 
Oweka  Indians  drink  water  and  spirt  it  into  the  air 
to  imitate  rain  or  when,  in  South  Eastern  Europe,  a 
girl  is  drenched  with  water  which  drips  from  her. 


GAMES,  SONG,  MUSIC  AND  DANCING 


81 


Both  these  are  rain-charms.  They  “do  what  they  want 
done.” 

By  slow  degrees  the  dance,  which  was  all  dumbshow, 
gave  rise  to  the  spoken  drama  (named  from  a  Greek 
word  meaning  “to  act”),  whereby  some  story,  sad  or 
merry,  was  acted  either  in  the  open  air,  as  in  Greece, 
or  under  cover  in  buildings  called  theatres  (so  named 
from  a  Greek  word  meaning  “to  see”). 


XIII 


MAN’S  PROGRESS  IN  ALL  THINGS 

The  early  history  of  man  shows  us  how  wonderful 
his  progress  has  been  when  we  compare  the  Age  of 
Stone  with  our  present  happy  lot.  Not  only  in  house 
building,  cooking,  pottery,  clothing,  and  the  various 
uses  of  metals,  have  his  rude  ways  been  improved  upon, 
but,  as  I  shall  show  you  in  a  later  chapter,  also  in  his 
knowledge  of  the  earth  beneath  and  the  stars  around 
the  progress  of  man  has  been  vast.  The  waves  of  ether 
and  of  the  air,  the  wind,  the  waterfall  and  stream, 
daily  work  for  him,  and  their  force  is  chained  to  do  his 
bidding.  He  has  already  seen  a  good  depth,  and  may 
see  further  yet,  into  the  mystery  of  the  stars,  and  every 
day  he  is  spelling  out  some  new  sentence  here  and 
there  in  the  great  book  of  Nature. 

An  ancient  writing  full  of  noble  thoughts,  begins  the 

story  of  some  great  and  noble  lives  with  these  words: 

“Let  us  now  praise  famous  men  and  our  fathers  that 

begat  us.”  But  there  are  men  who  can  never  be 

82 


MAN’S  PROGRESS  IN  ALL  THINGS 


83 


famous  because  we  know  only  what  they  did,  not  who 
they  were.  I  mean  those  who,  in  far  away  times, 
knowing  nothing,  and  thinking  nothing,  as  to  what 
would  be  the  outcome  of  their  own  simple  actions,  laid 
the  foundation  of  all  that  has  since  been  done.  For 
he  who  first  shaped  a  stone  weapon  was  the  father  of 
all  warriors;  he  who  first  chipped  a  flint  was  the  father 
of  all  sculptors;  he  who  first  daubed  clay  round  a 
gourd  or  coconut  shell  was  the  father  of  all  potters; 
he  who  first  scratched  a  picture  of  man  or  mammoth 
was  the  father  of  all  painters;  he  who  built  the  first 
rude  wigwam  or  mud-hut  was  the  father  of  all  house¬ 
builders;  he  who  first  scooped  out  a  tree  trunk  was  the 
father  of  all  shipbuilders;  he  who  first  piled  stones 
together  was  the  father  of  all  builders  of  pyramids, 
abbeys  and  cathedrals;  he  who  first  bored  a  hole  in  a 
reindeer’s  bone  to  make  a  whistle,  or  twanged  a 
stretched  sinew,  was  the  father  of  all  musicians;  he  who 
first  drew  a  picture  that  might  tell  some  message  or 
story  was  the  father  of  all  alphabets;  he  who  first 
counted  on  his  fingers  was  the  father  of  all  arithmetic 
makers;  he  who  first  rhymed  his  simple  thoughts  was 
the  father  of  all  poets;  he  who  first  tried  to  find  out 
the  secrets  of  matter  and  to  make  gold  and  silver  was 
the  father  of  all  chemists;  he  who  first  strove  to  learn 


84  the  childhood  of  the  world 

the  secret  of  sun  and  star  was  the  father  of  all  astron¬ 
omers.  In  short,  all  that  we  see  around  us  of  the  works 
of  man  has  come  from  simple  beginnings,  never  by 
leaps  or  bounds,  but  by  slow  steps. 


XIV 


DECAY  OF  PEOPLES 

I  have  given  this  little  book  the  title  of  the  “  Child¬ 
hood  of  the  World  ”  because  the  progress  of  the  world 
from  its  past  to  its  present  state  is  like  the  growth  of 
each  of  us  from  childhood  to  manhood  or  womanhood. 

Although  the  story,  on  the  whole,  has  flowed 
smoothly  along,  we  must  not  leave  out  of  sight  the 
terrible  facts  which  have  sometimes  checked  the 
current.  History,  both  in  books  and  in  ruins,  teaches 
that  there  have  been  tribes  and  nations  (some  of  the 
nations  so  great  and  splendid  that  it  seemed  impossible 
for  them  ever  to  fall)  which  have  reached  a  certain 
point,  then  decayed  and  died.  This  has  been  the  fate 
of  nearly  all  the  great  empires  of  past  renown.  To 
“the  glory  that  was  Greece  and  the  grandeur  that  was 
Rome,”  there  are  added  the  fallen  temples  and  monu¬ 
ments  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  Persia,  Mexico,  Peru  and 
other  once  powerful  nations,  while  in  some  cases,  as 
the  Hittites  and  the  Cretans,  whose  monuments  have 

been  disinterred,  the  key  to  the  languages  which  they 

S5 


86 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


spoke,  as  yet,  has  not  been  found.  And  since  man  has 
lived  so  many  thousands  of  years  on  the  earth,  there 
must  have  risen  and  fallen  races  and  tribes  of  which 
no  trace  will  ever  be  discovered. 

The  causes  of  the  sin  and  crime  of  which  every  place 
in  this  world,  at  one  time  or  another,  has  been  more 
or  less  the  scene,  are  men’s  ignorance  of  what  is  due 
to  their  fellow-man,  and  their  wilful  misuse  of  their 
strength  of  body  and  powers  of  mind.  Not  only  do  the 
“ape  and  tiger”  instincts  remain  in  man  as  a  born 
fighter;  he  can,  by  means  of  his  bigger  brain,  bring  his 
imagination  into  play  to  devise  horrors  and  cruelties 
the  story  of  which  is  one  of  the  saddest  in  his  history. 
(See  p.  148).  Hence  have  arisen  cruel  wars  and  shock¬ 
ing  butcheries;  captures  of  tree  people,  and  the  crush¬ 
ing  of  their  brave  spirits  in  slavery.  Moreover,  men 
have  disobeyed  the  laws  of  health,  and  the  plague 
or  “black  death”  has  killed  tens  of  thousands,  or 
gluttony  and  drunkenness  have  destroyed  them. 
They  have  striven  for  money  and  selfish  ease  (forget¬ 
ting  the  eternal  fact  that  not  one  of  us  can  live  by 
bread  alone,  but  that  we  live  our  lowest  if  that  be  the 
end  and  aim  of  our  life),  and  their  souls,  lean  and 
withered,  have  perished. 

But  although  the  hand  on  the  clock-face  of  progress 


DECAY  OF  PEOPLES 


87 


has  now  and  then  stood  still  or  even  gone  back,  it  is  a 
great  truth  for  our  comfort  and  trust  that  the  world 
gets  better  and  not  worse.  There  are  some  people  who 
are  always  sighing  for  what  is  not  or  cannot  be;  who 
look  back  to  the  days  of  their  childhood  and  wish 
them  here  again;  who  are  ever  talking  of  the  “good 
old  days”  when  laughter  rang  with  richest  mirth,  when 
work  was  plentiful  and  beggars  scarce,  and  life  so  free 
from  care  that  wrinkles  never  marked  the  happy  face. 
Do  not  listen  to  these  people,  they  have  either  misread 
the  past  or  not  read  it  at  all.  Like  some  other  things, 
it  is  well-looking  at  a  distance,  but  ill-looking  near. 
We  have  not  to  go  far  back  to  the  “good  old  times  ” 
to  learn  that  kings  and  queens  were  worse  lodged  and 
fed  and  taught  than  a  servant  is  now-a-days. 

It  is  very  foolish  and  wrong  either  to  wish  the  past 
back  again,  or  to  speak  slightingly  of  it.  It  filled  its 
place;  it  did  its  appointed  work.  Even  out  of  terrible 
wars  blessings  have  sometimes  come,  and  that  which 
men  have  looked  upon  as  evil  has  been  fruitful  in  good. 
Nothing  that  has  happened  has  ever  been  wholly 
wiped  out.  The  great  Empires  that  perished  left 
behind  them,  for  good  or  evil,  the  effects  of  what  they 
did.  The  past  has  made  us  what  we  are;  and  the 
present  is  helping  to  shape  the  future.  So  what  that 


88 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


future  will  be  like  rests  a  good  deal  with  each  of  us. 
We  may  help  or  hinder:  we  may  do  a  kind  act  or  an 
unkind  act,  and  thus  add  to  the  stock  of  human  love 
or  hatred.  Can  there  be  a  worthier  thing  to  strive  for 
than  to  know  that  the  world  is  even  a  little  the  better, 
and  in  no  way  the  worse,  for  our  having  been  born? 


XV 


SUMMARY 

I  have  striven  to  put  into  the  foregoing  chapters 
what,  told  at  length,  would  fill  many  books.  And  that 
your  memory  may  be  kept  fresh  and  clear,  I  will  repeat 
in  a  few  words  the  substance  of  what,  thus  far,  has 
been  said. 

All  living  things,  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  are 
like  the  trunk,  branches,  twigs,  and  leaves  of  a  single 
tree;  they  have  sprung  from  one  root.  Man  is  the 
topmost  branch  of  the  great  life-tree.  His  bigger 
brain  and  his  upright  posture  enabled  him  to  excel  all 
other  animals. 

Unnumbered  years  ago,  he  spread  himself  over  the 
globe  from  his  first  home.  He  was  far  lower  than  any 
savages  now-a-days;  he  lived  by  his  cunning  and 
strength,  outwitting  the  more  powerful  animals  that 
shared  the  earth  with  him.  For  brains  win  in  the 
struggle  for  life,  and  man  had  the  nimbler  and  bigger 
brain. 

During  a  time  that  can  only  be  roughly  measured 

89 


po 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


he  carried  on  that  struggle  with  the  help  of  stone  tools 
and  weapons:  his  history,  like  that  of  every  other 
living  thing,  is  one  of  fighting  for  food  and  mates,  and 
more  room  as  his  numbers  increased.  There  was  in 
those  old  days  little  mercy  or  pity,  the  weaker  gave 
way  to  the  strong  and  perished.  And  the  strong 
brought  forth  strong  children  who  grew  up  to  defend 
and  hold  what  they  had  gained,  which,  you  may  be 
sure,  were  the  things  worth  getting  and  keeping. 

Man  is  a  social  animal:  hence,  at  the  start,  he 
banded  himself  with  other  men.  Union  is  strength  and 
in  this  lay  the  power  whereby,  at  last,  in  the  course 
of  his  wonderful  history,  he  gained  lordship  over  all 
things  that  dwell  on  land  or  in  water.  But  he  and  his 
fellow-men  would  have  made  little  headway  had  they 
been  unable  to  talk  to  one  another.  It  was  in  the 
growth  of  the  organs  of  articulate  speech  that  the 
great  gulf  between  man  and  ape  was  further  widened 
never  to  be  filled. 

By  degrees  he  passed  from  hunting  animals  to 
taming  them;  then  from  eating  wild  fruits  and  seeds 
to  planting  them,  which  brought  about  needs  for  the 
dividing  of  labour,  and  so  arose  different  kinds  of 
workers.  Then,  as  time  went  on,  there  was,  ever¬ 
growing,  trading  by  land  and  sea.  By  the  discovery 


SUMMARY 


91 


of  metals  advance  from  barbarism  was  secured;  but 
the  metals  would  have  been  of  little  use  without  fire 
to  smelt  them;  hence,  even  for  that  alone,  the  im¬ 
portance  of  its  discovery. 

Climate,  food  and  other  causes  working  through 
immense  periods,  brought  about  changes  marking  for 
all  time  one  race  from  another,  dividing  mankind  into 
white,  yellow,  red  and  black. 

The  history  of  man  from  the  beginning  to  this  day 
is  a  sort  of  zigzag:  some  races  have  never  passed  be¬ 
yond  the  savage  state;  the  surface  of  the  world  is 
strewn  with  the  ruins  of  Empires  that  wielded  power 
and  rose  to  mighty  fame,  and  change  is  written  on  the 
face  of  everything. 


PART  II 


MAN  THE  THINKER 


XVI 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  place  of  an  animal  in  the  scale  of  life  is  governed 
by  the  size  and  quality — that  is,  the  grey  matter — ■ 
of  its  brain.  Fishes  are  the  lowest  among  the  back¬ 
boned,  and  their  brains  are  small  and  smooth.  As  we 
pass  from  these  to  reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals,  we 
find  the  brains  becoming  larger  and  larger  and  more 
grooved,  having  a  puckered-up  look  resembling  a 
walnut.  Man’s  brain  is  the  largest  and  most  furrowed, 
but,  as  further  proof  of  his  nearness  to  the  great  apes, 
his  brain  is  more  like  theirs  than  theirs  is  like  that  of 
monkeys. 

The  brain  is  the  most  wonderful  part  of  our  body, 
since  in  addition  to  its  being  the  organ  of  the  mind,  it 
controls  all  our  movements.  How  mind  and  brain 
work  together  we  do  not  know,  but  we  know  that  if 
anything  happens  to  the  brain,  the  mind  is  thrown  out 
of  gear.  Among  the  many  marvels  that  science  has 
revealed,  none,  I  think,  is  greater  than  this — that  the 
brain  is  a  mass  of  soft,  whitish  matter  made  up  of 

95 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


96 

more  than  four-fifths  water,  containing  about  three 
thousand  million  cells,  each  with  its  own  work  to  do, 
yet  all  acting  together  as  one,  and  maintaining  their 
working  power  till  disease,  injury  or  old  age  weaken  or 
destroy  them.  For  every  nerve  cell  appears  to  differ  from 
the  cells  of  which  our  bodies  are  made  up  in  that  it  is 
adapted  to  last  throughout  our  life,  no  matter  to  what 
age  we  attain. 

It  is  said  that  three-fourths  of  these  nerve  cells 
control  the  movements  of  our  body  and  sensations,  and 
that  the  remaining  fourth  control  our  thoughts,  storing 
up  in  some  way  that  we  cannot  explain  memory  of  The 
things  learnt,  seen  and  heard,  which  make  up  what  is 
called  our  experience — what  we  have  “passed  through,” 
as  that  word  means.  In  this  there  lies, — so  it  seems, 
for  we  cannot  get  inside  the  minds  of  animals,  any 
more  than  we  can  into  those  of  our  fellow  creatures — 
the  secret  of  man  as  the  highest  animal.  For  he  has 
the  power  to  conceive  about  things  and  shape  his  acts 
accordingly,  as  well  as  to  perceive ;  the  power  not  only 
to  know,  but  to  know  that  he  knows,  which  means 
that  he  is  conscious  of  himself;  and  can  say,  “I 
am  I.” 

How  man  got  his  name  is  uncertain,  but  there  are 
good  reasons  for  believing  that  it  comes  from  a  root 


INTRODUCTORY 


97 


word  meaning  to  think  or  to  know.  A  fitter  one  could 
not  have  been  chosen. 

Of  course  he  was  Thinker  as  well  as  Worker  from  the 
beginning,  but  to  make  things  clear  we  must  draw  a 
line  between  that  part  of  his  history  when  his  concern 
was  to  supply  the  wants  of  his  body,  and  the  other 
part  when  he  could  pause  to  think  about  the  world 
around  him  and  the  sky  above  him,  and  to  shape  his 
ideas  and  ask  questions  about  them.  But  we  shall  get 
our  minds  into  a  tangle  if  we  treat  the  divisions  made 
in  the  story  of  man’s  history  as  real.  For  he  never 
began  to  be  this  or  that;  he  passed  by  steps,  many  of 
which  are  wholly  worn-out,  while  the  traces  only  of  a 
few  remain,  from  lower  to  higher  things,  from  guesses 
to  certainties,  and  this  through  the  brain  whose  wonder¬ 
ful  nature  I  have  told  you  about. 

In  his  guesses  there  was  one  thing  that  he  could  not 
know,  and  that,  untaught,  none  of  us  could  know, — 
that  things  are  not  always  what  they  seem.  His  eyes 
told  him  that  the  earth  is  fiat,  moveless,  and  covered 
in  by  a  dome-like  vault,  across  which  the  sun,  moon 
and  stars  travel.  Our  eyes  tell  us  the  same,  but 
astronomers  have  proved  that  the  earth  is  a  globe  and 
revolves  round  the  sun  at  a  speed  of  about  nineteen 
miles  every  second.  The  savage,  hearing  the  re- 


98  '  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


bound  of  his  voice  from  the  hillside,  believes  that 
this  comes  from  a  mocking  spirit:  we  know  that  it  is 
due  to  the  return  of  air-waves  from  the  solid  body  which 
it  strikes.  The  old  Greeks  had  a  pretty  legend  that 
Echo  was  a  nymph,  daughter  of  the  Earth  and  Air, 
who,  for  love  of  a  beautiful  y6uth,  named  Narcissus, 
pined  away  until  there  remained  only  her  voice. 

Although  what  has  to  be  told  about  some  of  these 
guesses  must,  to  make  the  matters  clear,  be  set  down 
in  order,  you  must  keep  in  mind  the  fact  that  this 
order  does  not  agree  with  what  is  in  the  mind  of  the 
savage.  For  that  is  in  a  higgledy-piggledy  state;  full 
of  bewilderment.  His  thoughts,  like  ours,  must  take 
shape  from  his  surroundings,  hence,  where  there  is  so 
much  to  confuse,  his  ideas  are  jumbled;  nothing  is, 
as  we  say,  “cut  and  dried.”  The  idea  of  order  in 
anything  is  very  late  in  the  history  of  man:  even  today 
we  find  among  many  people,  who  are  supposed  to  be 
well  taught,  the  oddest  and  most  opposite  ideas  about 
things  without  seeing  how  absurd  those  ideas  are. 
And  there  is  another  thing  to  bear  in  mind  when  we 
hear  about  savage  man’s  guesses  and  the  beliefs  and 
customs  to  which  they  give  rise.  We  shall  find  in 
these  much  that  is  coarse  and  cruel,  but  this  is  not 
because  man  wilfully  acts  thus.  For  nothing  coarse  or 


INTRODUCTORY 


99 


cruel  could  have  lasted  if  it  did  not  answer  to  some 
needs  which  man  believed  could  not  be  satisfied  in  any 
other  way. 

Those  who  have  studied  his  body  tell  us  that  it 
bears  many  traces  of  the  structure  of  the  lower  animals 
from  which  he  has  sprung.  And,  in  like  manner,  those 
who  have  studied  the  higher  religions  tell  us  that  all 
of  them  bear  many  traces  of  the  lower  religions  from 
which  each  one  of  them  has  sprung.  The  religion  of 
the  savage  is  more  real  to  him  than  ours  is  to  many  of 
us.  For  it  had  its  beginnings  not,  as  is  sometimes  said, 
in  seeking  after  God,  but  in  supplying  the  needs  of  the 
body.  That  chief  need  was  food,  to  get  which  men 
had  to  work  together;  no  man  working  for  himself; 
if  he  did,  he  was  killed,  because  the  life  of  a  man  can 
never  stand  in  the  way  of  what  is  good  for  the  tribe. 
They  believed  that  their  food-supply  depended  on  the 
good  will  of  the  mighty  powers  that  gave  or  withheld 
the  rain  and  the  sunlight  and  the  moonshine,  This 
was  their  religion,  and  it  explains  the  world-wide  rites 
and  ceremonies  which  had  as  their  one  purpose  the 
maintenance  of  the  food-supply.  They  were  not 
taught  that  they  must  believe  this  or  that  creed  to 
ensure  the  happiness  of  heaven,  and  escape  the  tor¬ 
ments  of  hell;  indeed,  it  is  very  late  in  man’s  history 


IOO 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


that  religion  became  self-seeking,  making  the  saving 
of  his  soul  the  chief  purpose  of  his  life.  They  had  no 
priests,  and  no  preachers;  no  churches  or  chapels,  no 
sacred  scriptures;  no  one  day  set  apart  to  worship  their 
gods;  their  belief  was  a  common  every  day  affair,  in 
which  they  acted  as  one  man;  and  to  practise  it  was 
a  matter  of  life  and  death. 

So  it  was  with  what  we  call  morals:  a  word  which 
comes  from  the  Latin  mos,  manners  or  customs.  What¬ 
ever  was  helpful  to  the  tribe  was  right  to  do;  whatever 
was  harmful  to  it,  was  wrong  to  do,  and,  although  the 
ideas  of  what  is  right  and  wrong  differ  in  different 
lands  and  ages,  the  motive  whence  they  spring  is  the 
same — the  well  being  of  the  community. 

This  explains  the  force  of  Custom  throughout  the 
world.  An  old  writer  truly  calls  it  “King  of  All.” 
It  has  made  people  confuse  things  which  are  wrong 
in  themselves  with  things  which  are  neither  right  nor 
wrong,  and  really  of  no  .consequence.  In  India,  a  man 
of  one  caste  will  not  eat  with  a  man  of  a  different 
caste,  and  he  regards  dining  at  an  hotel  as  a  greater 
sin  than  murder.  So,  in  Albania,  the  shooting  of  a 
man  is  a  less  crime  than  to  eat  forbidden  food  on 
certain  days,  and,  some  centuries  ago  in  Germany, 
people  were  put  to  death  for  eating  meat  in  Lent. 


INTRODUCTORY 


IOI 


Until  within  the  last  few  years  in  Scotland  no  one 
dared  take  a  walk  on  a  Sunday,  and  it  was  forbidden 
to  travel  on  that  day  even  on  a  mission  of  mercy. 
Such  a  hard-hearted  creed  contradicted  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  that  “the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  not  man 
for  the  Sabbath.” 


i 


XVII 

MAN’S  FIRST  QUESTIONS 

What  were  the  things  that  set  man  thinking  and 
asking  about? 

He  saw  around  him  the  world  with  its  great  silent 
hills  and  green  valleys;  its  rugged  ridges  of  purple- 
tinted  mountains,  and  miles  of  barren  flat;  its  trees  and 
fragrant  flowers;  the  graceful  forms  of  animals,  the 
soaring  bird,  the  swift  deer  and  kingly  lion;  the  big, 
ungainly-shaped  mammoth  (long  since  died  out);  the 
wide  scene  beaming  with  the  colours  which  came  forth 
at  the  bidding  touch  of  the  sunlight,  or  bathed  in  the 
shadows  cast  by  passing  clouds;  he  saw  the  sun  rise 
and  travel  to  the  west,  carrying  the  light  away;  the 
moon  at  regular  times-  growing  from  sickle  shape  to 
full  round  orb ;  then  each  night  the  stars,  few  or 
many,  bursting-out  like  sparks  struck  off  the  wheels 
of  the  Sun  God’s  chariot,  or  like  the  glittering  sprays 
of  water  cast  by  a  ship  as  she  ploughs  the  sea. 

His  ears  listened  to  the  different  sounds  of  Nature; 
the  music  of  the  flowing  river;  the  roar  of  the  never 


102 


MAN’S  FIRST  QUESTIONS  103 

silent  sea;  the  rustle  of  the  leaves  as  they  were  swept 
by  the  unseen  fingers  of  the  breeze;  the  patter  of  the 
rain  as  it  dropped  from  the  great  black  clouds;  the 
rumble  of  the  thunder  as  it  followed  the  spear-like 
flashes  of  light  sent  from  the  rolling  clouds:  these  and 
a  hundred  other  sounds,  now  harsh,  now  sweet,  made 
him  ask — What  does  it  all  mean?  Where  and  what  am 
I?  Whence  came  I;  whence  came  all  that  I  see  and 
hear  and  touch? 

To  put  these  questions  was  to  seek  for  the  answers 
to  them;  hence  man’s  effort  to  find  out  the  cause  of 
things,  what  it  was  that  made  them  as  they  were. 

All  around  him  was  Nature  (by  which  is  meant 
that  which  brings  forth),  great,  mighty,  beautiful;  was 
it  not  all  alive,  for  did  it  not  all  move?  And  the 
savage  was  right ,  as  he  has  proved  to  be  in  other  things 
— since 

All  thoughts  that  mould  the  age  begin 
Deep  down  within  the  primitive  soul. 

All  life  is  one,  and  the  earth,  whence  we  all  come,  is 
no  dead  thing,  because  she  gives  life  to  all.  Her  soil 
feeds  the  plants;  the  plants  feed  the  animals;  and  both 
plants  and  animals  are  the  food  of  man.  That  we  all 
are  one  with  nature  is  a  truth  that  the  savage  felt, 
although  he  could  not  know  it  in  its  fulness.  For  in 


104 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


thinking  how  he  would  seek  to  get  at  the  cause  of 
what  he  saw  and  heard,  we  must  not  suppose  he  could 
reason  as  we  do.  But  although  he  could  not  shape  his 
thoughts  into  polished  speech,  common  sense  stood  by 
to  help  him. 

He  knew  that  he  himself  moved  or  stood  still  as  he 
chose,  that  his  choice  was  ruled  by  certain  reasons, 
and  that  only  when  he  willed  to  do  anything  was  it 
done.  Something  within  governed  all  that  he  did. 
Nature  was  not  still;  the  river  flowed,  the  leaves  trem¬ 
bled,  the  earth  shook,  the  clouds  drifted:  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  stayed  not:  these  then  must  be  moved  by 
something  within  them.  Thus  began  a  belief  in  spirits 
in  sun,  tree,  waterfall,  flame,  beast,  bird,  and  serpent; 
in  brief,  in  everything. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  from  this  there  flowed 
belief  in  a  life  common  to  all,  and  this  may  help  to 
explain  another  belief  found  among  many  of  the  lower 
races,  namely,  that  they  are  descended  from  animals 
and  plants,  and  even  from  non-living  things.  This  is 
known  as  Totemism,  a  name  which  comes  from  an 
Ojibway  (North  American)  word  meaning  “  family  or 
tribe.”  Three  hundred  years  ago  a  traveller  in  Peru 
tells  of  a  tribe  who  believed  that  their  ancestor  came 
out  of  a  river,  and  who  would  not  allow  any  fish  to  be 


MAN’S  FIRST  QUESTIONS  105 

caught  in  it  because  they  said  that  the  fish  were  their 
brothers.  The  tribes  who  believe  like  things  call 
themselves  after  the  living  or  not-living  thing  from 
which  they  claim  descent,  and  in  the  case  of  the 
animal  or  plant  they  will  not  eat  it.  If,  by  stress  of 
hunger,  they  are  forced  to  kill  the  animal,  they  beg 
its  pardon  and  in  other  ways  seek  to  avert  any  harm 
that  may  come  to  them  from  so  doing.  The  belief 
leads  to  all  kinds  of  queer  customs,  as,  for  example,  a 
clan  in  Central  India  has  a  brick  for  its  totem,  and 
therefore  uses  only  wattle  or  mud  in  building  its  houses! 
Another  clan  near  the  Himalayas  claims  to  be  kindred 
with  the  tiger,  and  goes  into  mourning  when  one  of 
these  creatures  dies. 


XVIII 


MAN’S  FEAR  OF  THE  UNKNOWN 

Above  and  around  man  were  movement  and  change; 
he  saw  and  heard  happenings  the  cause  and  meaning 
of  which  bewildered  him;  hence  his  feeling  was  solely 
one  of  fear.  For  the  unknown  is  always  dreaded;  only 
when  the  nature  of  anything  is  known,  can  we  think 
or  talk  calmly  about  it.  Everywhere  and  through 
all  time  the  ignorant  are  the  slaves  of  mystery  and 
fear;  so  true  is  the  old  saying  that  “ Knowledge  is 
Power.” 

As  I  have  sought  to  show,  the  instinct  of  the  savage 

leads  him  to  ascribe  an  in-dwelling  life  to  everything 

that  moves,  from  the  sun  in  heaven  to  the  rustling 

leaves  and  the  stones  that  roll  from  the  hillside  across 

his  path.  In  this  he  acts  as  we  see  shying  horses,  timid 

pups,  and  young  children  act,  until  they  learn  from 

experience  what  things  move  of  their  own  accord  and 

what  things  do  not.  Ever  on  the  alert  against  enemies, 

man’s  fears  multiplied  them  on  all  sides;  and  since  he 

thought  that  the  unseen  beings  in  whom  he  believed 

106 


MAN’S  FEAR  OF  THE  UNKNOWN 


107 


had  passions  like  his  own,  he  dreaded  harm  from  every 
quarter,  especially  from  things  near  at  hand  whose  dire 
effects  touched  him  closely,  as  the  whirlpool  and  the 
rushing  river,  the  falling  tree,  the  devouring  beast,  or 
venomous  reptile.  Things  farther  off  and  less  fitful 
moved  him  somewhat  less,  but  although  day  succeeded 
night,  he  saw  that  the  sun  and  moon  were  in  turn  often 
swallowed  and  disgorged  by  the  black  cloud-monsters, 
and  in  the  wake  of  the  fire  and  wind-dragons  of  the 
lightning  and  the  storm  he  feared  destruction  and 
death. 

And  that  primitive  fear  has  never  wholly  left  the 
heart  of  man.  Today  the  Red  Indian  “sees  signs  of 
weal  or  woe  in  the  turning  of  a  leaf,  the  crawling  of  an 
insect,  the  cry  of  a  bird,  and  the  crackling  of  a  bough,” 
and  in  Hindustan  the  religion  of  nine  people  out  of 
every  ten  is  one  of  fear.  For  thousands  of  years, 
harassed  and  haunted  by  beliefs  about  angry  gods  and 
maliceful  demons,  man  everywhere  has  been  kept  in  a 
state  of  fright.  We  can  count  the  years  only  by  a 
few  hundreds  when  the  discovery  of  an  unbroken  order 
in  the  universe  has  set  us  free  from  the  terrors  begotten 
by  those  beliefs.  For  to  know  that  nothing  happens 
by  chance  is  to  give  us  a  sense  of  strength  and  comfort 
that  “underneath  us  are  the  Everlasting  arms.”  And 


108  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

4 

we  can  count  the  years  only  by  fifties  and  sixties  since 
children  were  frightened,  as  I  was  in  my  boyhood, 
by  tales  of  people  sent  to  suffer  for  ever  and  ever  in 
torments  of  fire  and  brimstone  for  no  matter  how 
little  a  sin  they  may  have  committed.  Now,  instead 
of  being  thus  frightened  into  doing  evil,  lest  we  be 
thus  punished  for  it,  we  are  taught  to  love  the  right 
for  its  own  sake,  because  only  thus  can  we  help  on  the 
advance  of  man  to  what  is  best  and  noblest,  and  enjoy 
for  ourselves  a  “ peace  that  passe th  understanding.” 


XIX 


MYTHS  ABOUT  THE  EARTH  AND  MAN 

In  seeking  to  account  for  the  kind  of  life  which 
seemed  to  be  (and  really  was,  although  not  as  he 
thought  of  it)  in  all  things  around,  man  shaped  the 
most  curious  notions  into  the  form  of  myths ,  by  which 
is  meant  a  fanciful  story  founded  on  something  real 
(Greek  mythos,  a  fable).  If  to  us  a  boat  or  a  ship 
becomes  a  sort  of  personal  thing,  especially  when 
named  after  anyone;  if  “Jack  Frost,”  and  “Old 
Father  Christmas,”  which  are  but  names,  seem  also 
persons  to  the  mind  of  a  little  child,  we  may  readily 
see  how  natural  it  is  for  savages  to  think  that  the 
flame  licking  up  the  wood  is  a  living  thing  whose  head 
could  be  cut  off;  to  believe  that  the  gnawing  feeling 
of  hunger  is  caused  by  a  lizard  or  a  bird  in  the  stomach; 
to  imagine  that  the  echoes  which  the  hills  threw  back 
came  from  the  dwarfs  who  dwelt  among  them,  and 
that  the  thunder  was  the  rumbling  of  the  Heaven- 
God’s  chariot  wheels. 

Myths  have  changed  their  form  in  different  ages, 

109 


no 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


but  they  remain  among  us  even  now,  and  live  in  many 
a  word  still  used,  the  first  meaning  of  which  has  died 
out.  To  show  you  what  is  meant:  we  often  speak  of  a 
cross  or  sullen  person  being  in  a  bad  humour,  which 
word  rests  on  a  very  old  and  false  notion  that  there 
were  four  moistures  or  humours  in  the  body,  on  the 
proper  mixing  of  which  the  good  or  bad  temper  of  a 
person  depended. 

In  telling  you  a  little  about  myths  I  cannot  stay  to 
show  you  where  the  simple  early  ones  became  later 
on  stiffened  into  the  legends  of  heroes,  with  loves  and 
fears  and  hates  and  mighty  deeds,  such  as  make  up 
so  much  of  the  early  history  of  Greece  and  Rome,  but 
that  you  will  learn  from  other  books. 

To  savages  the  earth  was  a  living  creature,  both  as 
a  whole  and  in  every  part;  the  soil  was  her  flesh;  the 
rocks  and  stones  were  her  bones.  In  many  languages 
she  bears  the  beautiful,  and  in  so  many  ways  true, 
name  of  Earth-Mother,  as  the  self-reproductive.  A 
very  old  and  widespread  myth  tells  of  a  time  when 
she  and  the  overarching  Heaven-Father  were  joined 
together,  whereby  all  things  were  in  darkness  until 
some  hero  cut  them  asunder  and  gave  light  to  man¬ 
kind.  And  an  old  Greek  myth  tells  how  when  Heaven 
and  Earth  rewedded,  there  was 


MYTHS  ABOUT  THE  EARTH  AND  MAN 


hi 


born  unto  the  day 

And  light  of  life  all  things  that  are;  the  trees, 

Flowers,  birds  and  beasts  and  them  that  breathe  the  seas. 

In  savage  myth  the  waterspout  was  thought  to  be  a 
giant  or  sea-serpent  reaching  from  sea  to  sky;  the 
rainbow  (which  books  about  light  will  tell  you  is  .a 
circle,  half  only  of  which  we  can  see)  was  a  living 
demon  coming  down  to  drink  when  the  rain  fell,  or, 
prettier  myth,  the  heaven-ladder  or  bridge  along  which 
the  souls  of  the  blest  are  led  by  angels  to  Paradise; 
or  the  bow  of  God  set  in  the  clouds,  as  Indian,  Jew, 
and  Fin  have  called  it;  the  clouds  were  cows  driven  by 
the  children  of  the  morning  to  their  pasture  in  the 
blue  fields  of  heaven;  the  tides  were  the  beating  of 
the  ocean’s  heart;  the  earthquake  was  caused  by  the 
Earth  Tortoise  moving  underneath;  the  lightning  was 
the  forked  tongue  of  the  storm  demon,  the  thunder 
his  roar;  and  volcanoes  were  the  dwelling  places  of 
angry  demons  who  threw  up  red-hot  stones  from  them. 

Man’s  sense  of  the  wonderful  is  so  strong  that  a 
belief  in  giants  and  pigmies  and  fairies  was  as  easy  to 
him  as  it  has  been  hard  to  remove.  The  bones  of 
huge  beasts  now  extinct  were  said  to  have  belonged 
to  giants,  whose  footprints  were  left  in  those  hollows 
in  stones  which  we  know  to  be  water  worn.  The  big 


112 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


loose  stones  were  said  to  have  been  torn  from  the 
rocks  by  the  giants  and  hurled  at  their  foes  in  battle. 
The  stories  of  the  very  small  people  who  once  lived  in 
northern  Europe,  and  whose  descendants  now  live  in 
Lapland,  perhaps  gave  rise  to  a  belief  in  dwarfs.  The 
flint  arrowheads  of  the  New  Stone  Age  were  said  to 
be  elf-darts  used  by  the  little  spirits  dwelling  in  woods 
and  wild  places,  and  the  polished  stone  axes  to  be 
thunderbolts ! 

How  all  kinds  of  other  myths,  such  as  those  account¬ 
ing  for  the  bear’s  stumpy  tail,  the  robin’s  red  breast, 
the  crossbill’s  twisted  bill,  the  aspen’s  quivering  leaf, 
arose,  I  cannot  now  stay  to  tell  you,  nor  how  out  of 
myths  there  grew  the  nursery  stories  and  fairy  tales 
which  children  never  tire  of  hearing;  for  we  must  soon 
be  starting  on  our  voyage  from  the  wonderful  realm 
of  fancy  to  the  not  less  wonderful  land  of  fact  whither 
science  is  ever  bearing  us.  Nay,  not  less  wonderful, 
but  more  wonderful,  since  the  fancies  come  from  the 
facts  more  than  the  facts  from  the  fancies. 


XX 

MYTHS  ABOUT  SUN  AND  MOON 


Among  many  savage  tribes  the  sun  and  moon  are 
thought  to  be  man  and  wife,  or  brother  and  sister. 
One  of  the  most  curious  myths  of  this  kind  comes  from 
the  Esquimaux,  the  dwellers  in  the  far  North.  It  re¬ 
lates  that  when  a  girl  was  at  a  party,  some  one  told 
his  love  for  her  by  shaking  her  shoulders  after  the 
manner  of  the  country.  She  could  not  see  who  it  was 
in  the  dark  hut,  so  she  smeared  her  hands  with  soot, 
and  when  he  came  back  she  blackened  his  cheek  with 
her  hand.  When  a  light  was  brought  she  saw  that  it 
was  her  brother,  and  fled.  He  ran  after  her  and 
followed  her  as  she  came  to  the  end  of  the  earth  and 
sprang  out  into  the  sky.  There  she  became  the  sun 
and  he  the  moon,  and  this  is  why  the  moon  is  always 
chasing  the  sun  through  the  heavens,  and  why  the 
moon  is  sometimes  dark  as  he  turns  his  blackened 
cheek  towards  the  earth. 

Among  other  people,  and  in  later  times,  the  sun  is 

spoken  of  as  the  lover  of  the  dawn  who  went  before 

113 


1 14  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

him,  killing  her  with  his  bright  spear-like  rays,  while 
night  was  a  living  thing  which  swallowed-up  the  day. 
If  the  sun  is  a  face  streaming  with  locks  of  light,  the 
moon  is  a  silver  boat,  or  a  mermaid  living  half  her 
time  under  the  water.  When  the  sun  shone  with 
a  pleasant  warmth  he  was  called  the  friend  of  man; 
when  his  heat  scorched  the  earth  he  was  said  to  be 
slaying  his  children.  You  have  perhaps  heard  that 
the  dark  patches  on  the  moon’s  face,  which  look  so 
very  much  like  a  nose  and  two  eyes,  gave  rise  to  the 
notion  of  a  lt  a  man  in  the  moon,”  who  was  said  to  be 
set  up  there  for  picking  sticks  on  a  Sunday! 


XXI 

MYTHS  ABOUT  ECLIPSES 

There  is  something  so  weird  and  gloomy  in  eclipses 
of  the  sun  and  moon,  that  we  can  readily  understand 
how  through  all  the  world  they  have  been  looked  upon 
as  the  direct  work  of  some  dreadful  power. 

The  Chinese  imagine  them  to  be  caused  by  great 
dragons  trying  to  devour  the  sun  and  moon,  and  beat 
drums  and  brass  kettles  to  make  the  monsters  give 
up  their  prey.  Some  of  the  tribes  of  American  Indians 
speak  of  the  moon  as  hunted  by  huge  dogs,  catching 
and  tearing  her  till  her  soft  light  is  reddened  and  put 
out  by  the  blood  flowing  from  her  wounds.  To  this 
day  in  India  the  native  beats  his  gong  as  the  moon 
passes  across  the  sun’s  face,  and  it  is  not  so  very  long 
ago  that  in  Europe  both  eclipses  and  rushing  comets 
were  thought  to  show  that  troubles  were  near.  Here 
again  we  learn  the  lesson  that  Fear  is  the  daughter  of 
Ignorance,  and  only  departs  when  Knowledge  enlightens 
us  as  to  the  cause  of  things.  For  we  know  that  an 
eclipse  (which  word  comes  from  Greek  words  meaning 

ns  1 


ii  6  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

to  leave  out  or  forsake )  is  caused  either  by  the  moon 
passing  in  such  a  line  between  the  earth  and  sun  as  to 
cause  his  light  to  be  in  part  or  altogether  hidden, 
left  out  for  a  short  time;  or  by  the  earth  so  passing 
between  the  sun  and  moon  as  to  throw  its  shadow 
upon  the  moon  and  partly  or  wholly  hide  her  light. 
Our  fear  would  arise  if  eclipses  did  not  happen  at  the 
very  moment  when  astronomers  have  calculated  them 
to  occur. 


XXII 


MYTHS  ABOUT  STARS 

There  is  a  curious  Asian  myth  about  the  stars  which 
tells  that  the  sun  and  moon  are  both  women.  The 
stars  are  the  moon’s  children,  and  the  sun  once  had  as 
many.  Fearing  that  mankind  could  not  bear  so  much 
light,  each  agreed  to  eat  up  her  children.  The  moon 
hid  hers  away,  but  the  sun  kept  her  word,  which  no 
sooner  had  she  done  than  the  moon  brought  her 
children  from  their  hiding  place.  When  the  sun  saw 
them  she  was  filled  with  rage  and  chased  the  moon  to 
kill  her,  and  the  chase  has  lasted  ever  since.  Some¬ 
times  the  sun  comes  near  enough  to  bite  the  moon, 
and  that  is  an  eclipse.  The  sun,  as  man  may  still  see, 
devours  her  stars  at  dawn,  but  the  moon  hides  hers 
all  day  while  the  sun  is  near,  and  brings  them  out  at 
night  only,  when  the  sun  is  far  away. 

The  names  still  in  use  for  certain  clusters  of  stars 

and  single  stars  were  given  long  ago  when  the  stars 

were  thought  to  be  living  creatures.  They  were  said 

to  be  men  who  had  once  lived  here;  to  be  mighty 

117 


n8 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


hunters  or  groups  of  young  men  and  maidens  dancing. 
Many  of  the  names  given  show  that  the  stars  were 
watched  with  anxiety  by  the  farmer  and  sailor,  who 
thought  they  ruled  the  weather.  The  group  of  stars 
known  to  us  as  the  Pleiades  was  so  called  from  the 
word  plein,  which- means  to  sail ,  because  the  old  Greek 
sailors  watched  for  their  rising  before  they  ventured 
on  the  ocean.  They  are  called  the  digging  stars  by  the 
Zulus,  who  live  in  South  Africa,  because  when  they 
appear  the  people  begin  to  dig.  A  very  good  illus¬ 
tration  of  the  change  which  a  myth  takes  is  afforded 
by  the  Greek  mythology  in  which  the  Pleiades  are 
spoken  of  as  the  seven  daughters  of  Atlas  (who  was 
said  to  bear  the  world  on  his  shoulders),  six  of  whom 
were  wedded  to  the  gods,  and  the  seventh  to  a  king, 
for  which  reason  Merope,  as  she  is  named,  shines  the 
faintest  of  them  all. 

The  stars  were  formerly  believed  to  govern  the  fate 
of  a  person  in  life.  The  temper  was  said  to  be  good  or 
bad,  the  nature  grave  or  gay,  according  to  the  planet 
which  was  in  the  ascendant,  as  it  was  called,  at  birth. 
Several  words  in  our  language  witness  to  this  old  belief. 
We  speak  of  a  “ disaster,”  which  means  the  stroke  or 
blast  of  an  unlucky  star;  aster  being  a  Greek  word  for 
star.  We  call  a  person  “  ill-starred  ”  or  born  under  a 


MYTHS  ABOUT  STARS 


119 

“ lucky  star.”  Grave  and  gloomy  people  are  called 
“  saturnine/’  because  those  born  under  the  planet 
Saturn  were  said  to  be  so  disposed.  Merry  and  happy 
natured  people  are  called  “jovial/’  as  born  under  the 
planet  Jupiter  or  Jove.  Active  and  sprightly  people 
are  called  “mercurial,”  as  born  under  the  planet 
Mercury.  Mad  people  are  called  “lunatics.”  Luna 
is  the  Latin  word  for  moon,  and  the  more  sane  move¬ 
ments  of  the  insane  were  believed  to  depend  upon  her 
phases  or  appearances  of  change  in  form. 

Sun,  moon,  and  stars  were  all  thought  to  be  fixed 
to  the  great  heaven  (which  word  is  said  to  come  from 
the  Anglo-Saxon  kef  an ,  to  lift,  although  this  is  not 
certain)  because  it  seemed  like  a  solid  arch  over  the 
flat  earth.  To  many  a  mind  it  was  the  place  of  bliss, 
where  care  and  want  and  age  could  never  enter.  The 
path  to  it  was  imagined  to  be  along  that  bright  looking 
band  across  the  sky  known  to  us  as  the  “Milky  Way,” 
the  sight  of  which  has  given  birth  to  several  beautiful 
myths. 


XXIII 


NATURE-WORSHIP 

We  have  now  to  learn  a  little  about  some  of  the 
things  which  savages  worship,  and  the  worship  of 
which  has  not  wholly  died  out  among  some  higher 
races. 

The  interesting  question  as  to  what  man  first  wor¬ 
shipped  has  had  many  answers,  but  none  of  them  are 
complete,  because  no  one  answer  wholly  meets  the 
case.  Some  learned  men  think  that  the  worship  of 
serpents  and  trees  was  the  earliest  faith  of  mankind. 
Others  have  thought  that  the  earth,  sun,  moon,  stars, 
and  fire  were  first  worshipped.  It  is  not  in  any  one 
thing,  but  in  man’s  sense  of  powers  about  him  and 
around  him  which  he  could  not  control,  that  we  must 
look  for  the  beginnings  of  worship  (see  p.  99).  Ruled 
by  fear  of  them,  he  would  try  to  get  into  some  sort  of 
friendly  relation  with  them;  he  would  devise  ways  to  se¬ 
cure  their  help  and  favour.  Ages  might  pass  before  he 
thought  of  them  as  in  any  way  like  himself,  that  is,  as 
persons,  and  then  his  ideas  of  them  would  be  shaped 


120 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


12 1 


by  his  surroundings.  In  a  flat  country,  there  would 
be  no  mountain  gods;  in  a  waterless  land,  there  would 
be  no  river  gods;  and  in  a  country  not  bordering  on 
the  sea,  there  would  be  no  ocean  gods. 

1.  Worship  of  Lifeless  Things. 

A.  The  Earth 

B.  Water 

C.  Stones  and  Mountains 

D.  Fire 

E.  Sun,  Moon  and  Stars  . 

2.  Worship  of  Living  Things 

F.  Animals 

G.  Trees 

H.  Man 

A.  The  Earth.  Earth  worship  has  a  foremost  place 
in  early  religions.  As  I  have  said,  she  was  fitly  named 
All-Mother,  for  from  her  all  things  come.  The  idea 
of  her  motherhood  was  no  mere  pretty  fancy,  but  a 
fact;  to  the  natives  of  America  and  elsewhere  she  was 
a  living  thing;  indeed,  a  great  astronomer,  who  lived 
three  hundred  years  ago,  thought  that  the  lungs  and 
gills  through  which  the  Earth-spirit  breathed  would 
one  day  be  found  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea! 

This  idea  of  the  Earth-Mother  grew  as  man  passed 


122 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


from  the  hunting  to  the  farming  stage.  Some  of  the 
most  beautiful  myths  of  olden  time  have  their  source 
in  the  death  of  plant  life  in  the  winter  and  its  res¬ 
urrection  in  the  spring.  Connected  with  these  are 


Fig.  24. — The  Earth  Goddess  with  her  Children 

(A  relief  from  the  Augustan  Altar  of  Peace  preserved  in  the  Ufifizi 

Gallery,  Florence) 

various  ceremonies  and  customs  at  different  times  of 
the  year,  oftenest  in  the  budding  spring,  the  purpose 
of  all  of  which  was  to  secure  good  harvests,  and  plenty 
of  flocks  and  herds.  Some  of  the  sacrifices  then 
offered  were  bloody,  because  of  the  belief  which  has 
caused  so  much  cruelty  and  suffering  that  only  in  such 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


123 


way  could  the  favour  of  the  gods  be  won.  It  was  be¬ 
lieved  that  the  Earth-spirit  was  angry  when  the  plough 
cut  the  soil,  or  when  the  cattle  trampled  upon  it,  or 
when  the  foundations  of  a  building  were  driven  into 
it.  So  we  read  that  in  ancient  Mexico  a  woman 
dressed  to  represent  the  Earth  goddess  was  killed  and 
her  heart  offered  to  the  Maize  Mother;  that  in  the 
Philippine  Islands  a  slave  was  sacrificed  before  the 
rice  was  sown;  while  only  a  few  years  ago,  some  tribes 
in  Bengal  hacked  a  victim  to  pieces  in  the  belief  that 
his  blood  was  necessary  to  give  a  deep  red  colour  to 
the  turmeric  (a  dye-yielding  plant)  which  they  cul¬ 
tivated.  In  many  parts  of  the  world  to  this  day,  a 
victim,  usually  an  animal,  is  buried  under  the  founda¬ 
tion,  or  inside  the  wall,  of  a  new  building  to  appease 
the  Earth-spirit. 

In  other  lands,  and  in  later  and  happier  times,  these 
hideous  sacrifices  gave  place  to  processions  and  festivals 
free  from  cruel  rites.  The  priests  led  the  people  round 
the  fields,  singing  hymns,  and  blessing  the  growing 
crops.  The  spring  became  more  and  more  a  season  of 
joy  and  hope,  and  from  these  more  beautiful  forms 
of  Earth  worship  came  our  Mayday  dances  and  har¬ 
vest  thanksgivings.  In  some  parts  of  England  there 
survives  the  custom  of  patrolling  the  bounds  of  the 


124 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


parish,  when  the  clergyman  and  his  flock  deprecate 
the  vengeance  of  God  by  a  blessing  on  the  fruits  of  the 
earth  and,  in  beating  the  bounds,  preserve  the  rights 
and  properties  of  the  parish. 

B.  Water.  The  worship  of  water,  that  marvellous 
thing  without  which  there  could  be  no  life,  is  very  wide¬ 
spread  and  easy  to  account  for — for  what  seemed  so 
full  of  life,  and  therefore,  according  to  early  man’s 
reason,  so  full  of  spirits,  as  rivers,  brooks,  and  water¬ 
falls?  To  him  it  was  the  water  demon  that  made  the 
river  flow  so  fast  as  to  be  dangerous  in  crossing,  and 
that  curled  the  dreaded  whirlpool  in  which  life  was 
sucked.  When  one  river  god  came  to  be  afterwards 
believed  in,  as  controlling  each  stream,  making  it  to 
flow  lazily  along  or  to  rush  at  torrent  speed,  it  was  be¬ 
lieved  to  be  wrong  to  save  any  drowning  person  lest 
the  river  god,  or  the  demons  who  were  believed  to  be 
the  ghosts  of  drowned  men',  should  be  cheated  of  their 
prey. 

Sacred  springs,  holy  wells,  abound  everywhere  to 
show  how  deep  and  lasting  was  water  worship.  So 
cleansing  and  healing  a  thing,  the  more  so  when  it  has 
minerals  in  it,  made  early  appeal  to  man,  and  from 
ancient  Babylonia  to  modern  Wales  the  sick  and  crip¬ 
pled  have  flocked  to  holy  wells  to  be  cured.  The  same 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


125 


belief  explains  the  ancient  and  modern  rite  of  baptism, 
which  led  to  the  cruel  creed  no  savage  would  have 
framed  that  if  children  were  not  sprinkled  with  water 
by  a  priest  they  could  not  be  saved,  and  to  the  belief 
that  “holy  water”  can  drive  away  demons  and  witches. 
The  great  rivers  of  the  world,  as  the  Nile,  the  Tiber 
and  the  Thames,  are  famous  as  “ fathers,”  and  in  art 
are  sculptured  in  human  forms,  while  among  the  more 
sacred  rivers  is  the  Ganges,  of  which  some  beautiful 
stories  are  given  in  the  sacred  books  of  India,  telling 
how  it  flows  from  the  heavenly  places  to  bless  the  earth 
and  wash  away  all  sin.  In  West  Africa  offerings  are 
made  by  the  sorcerers  to  still  the  raging  sea,  as  among 
the  ancient  Greeks  and  Romans  victims  were  cast  into 

t 

it,  in  each  case  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  great  sea  gods,  or 
“  mother  sea,”  as  the  ancient  Peruvians,  worshipping  it 
as  giver  of  food,  called  it.  Down  to  the  eighteenth 
century  the  inhabitants  of  the  Butt  of  Lewis  in  Scot¬ 
land  made  offerings  to  a  sea  god  named  Shony,  and 
even  within  recent  times  continued  certain  rites  to  the 
god  to  secure  a  good  supply  of  seaweed. 

C.  Stones  and  Mountains.  All  over  the  world,  and 
for  all  sorts  of  reasons,  odd  and  otherwise,  stones  have 
been  worshipped.  I  spoke  (p.  112)  of  the  old  belief 
that  flint  arrowheads  were  fairy  darts  and  chipped 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


126 


tools  thunderbolts,  and  the  belief  in  stones  as  sacred 
was  helped  because  some  of  them  were  known  to  have 
fallen  from  the  sky.  These  are  what  we  call  “  shooting 
stars,”  which  being  too  large  to  melt  in  vapour  as  they 
pass  through  the  atmosphere  have  reached  the  earth 
in  a  solid  state.  Of  such  kind  are  said  to  be  the  Black 
Stone  at  Mecca,  which  Mohammedans  travel  long  dis¬ 
tances  to  worship,  and  also  stones  in  Mexico  and  India. 
Stones  of  curious  shape  are  believed  to  have  magic 
powers.  A  savage  sees  a  stone  that  looks  like  a  bread 
fruit,  so  he  buries  it  near  a  bread  fruit  tree  in  the  be¬ 
lief  that  he  will  thus  have  a  good  crop.  Or  he  sees  a 
stone  with  little  stones  underneath  it,  and  worships 
these  in  the  hope  that  his  sow  will  give  him  many 
pigs.  These  are  also  examples  of  “ sympathetic  magic” 
(see  p.  80).  In  Nigeria,  when  a  man  falls  ill,  lots  are 
cast,  and  food  and  drink  given  to  sacred  stones  that 
they  may  cure  him. 

More  than  any  other  worship,  that  of  stones  links 
together  the  past  and  present.  The  history  of  the  an¬ 
cient  Greeks,  Romans,  Jews,  Mexicans,  and  other  peo¬ 
ple  of  renown,  is  full  of  examples  of  belief  in  stones  as 
alive  and  as  having  magic  powers.  Two  hundred  years 
before  Christ  the  Romans  (whose  primitive  rites  were 
agricultural),  joyfully  welcomed  an  image,  a  small  rough 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


127 


black  stone,  of  the  Great  Nature  or  Mother  Goddess 
Cybele  from  Asia  Minor,  because  they  believed  it 
would  help  them  to  victory.  The  sacred  images  of  the 
Goddessr  Diana,  and  of  the  gods  Jupiter  and  Terminus, 
were  unhewn  blocks,  and  an  old  writer  tells  of  thirty 
shapeless  stones  that  the  Greeks  worshipped.  The 
Peruvians  had  a  legend  of  stones  into  which  some  men 
and  women  who  angered  the  Creator  were  turned,  re¬ 
minding  us  of  the  story  of  Lot’s  wife  changed  into  a 
pillar  of  salt  for  disobeying  God.  A  very  striking 
example  of  Jewish  belief  in  stones  as  living  is  given  in 
the  Book  of  Joshua  (XXIV,  27),  where  it  is  said  that  a 
stone  heard  all  the  words  that  God  spake!  Old  records 
tell  us  of  “decrees  as  late  as  the  eleventh  century  con¬ 
demning  the  barbarous  worship  of  Stones,  Trees,  and 
Fountains  and  of  the  Heavenly  Bodies,”  by  Christians. 
Oaths  were  sworn  on  stones;  sick  people  rubbed  against 
them  to  be  cured;  kings,  as  is  the  King  of  England  to 
this  day,  were  crowned  on  them,  while  the  belief  in 
them  as  bringers  of  good  fortune  is  widespread.  As  a 
boy,  I  carried  a  holed  stone  in  my  pocket  for  luck. 

Standing  stones,  stones  built  up  like  tables  and  in 
circles,  are  scattered  in  thousands  over  the  globe.  They 
often  mark  a  burial  place,  and  veneration  or  fear  of  the 
dead  leads  to  worship  of  them.  They  have  given  rise 


128 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


to  many  legends  of  the  kind  just  named,  and  the  great 
circles  especially  have  been  the  scenes  of  rites  and  cere¬ 
monies  which  are  still  performed  in  India  and  other 
parts  of  the  East,  where  things  have  changed ‘Scarcely 
at  all  from  the  remotest  times. 

Sacred,  also,  are  the  great  mountains  whose  tops 
pierce  the  heavens.  There  man  has  placed  the  dwell¬ 
ings  of  the  gods;  as  of  Jupiter  among  the  Greeks; 
Jehovah  among  the  Jews;  and  Odin  among  the  Norse¬ 
men.  Mountain- worship  is  found  in  China,  and  among 
the  native  races  of  America  “almost  all  the  mountains 
and  high  places  were  supposed  to  be  the  dwelling  place 
of  spirits  and  spirit  forms.” 

D.  Fire.  The  shooting,  leaping,  crackling  flames,  de¬ 
vouring  what  is  thrown  on  them,  and  sending  it  off  in 

smoke — were  not  these  also  alive?  Ever  since  man 

* 

found  out  how  to  obtain  fire,  his  care  has  been  to  guard 
it.  Wherever  the  savage  goes  he  takes  it  with  him,  like 
the  Papuans,  who  carry  .a  smouldering  stick  when  they 
travel  through  the  jungle,  and  keep  a  fire  burning  in 
their  canoes.  In  Malay  the  hearth  fire  must  not  be 
stepped  over;  among  the  Todas  of  India  when  a  lamp  is 
lit  worship  is  paid  to  it;  in  ancient  Greece  the  fire  was 
kept  burning  in  every  house  in  honour  of  Hestia,  the 
hearth  goddess,  and  likewise  in  Rome  to  Vesta.  There 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


129 


six  maidens  kept  alive  the  holy  fire  in  the  temple  of  the 
goddess,  the  same  rites  were  performed  in  far-off  Peru, 
where  the  virgins  were  “ wives  of  the  sun;”  today, 
among  the  Bagandas  in  Africa,  girls  are  set  apart  for  a 
similar  duty.  The  lit  lamp  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem 
was  never  extinguished.  As  late  as  the  reign  of  Henry 
VIII.  the  nuns  of  Saint  Brigit  or  Bridget  (once  a  pagan 
fire-goddess)  tended  a  holy  fire  which  they  might  not 
blow  out  with  their  breath,  as  in  Persian  temples  to¬ 
day,  where  fire  is  an  emblem  of  the  divine,  the  faces  of 
the  priests  are  covered  with  veils,  and  as  in  India 
Brahmans  are  forbidden  to  blow  a  fire  with  their 
mouths.  When  the  Kayans  of  Borneo  pray  they  light 
something  in  the  belief  that  the  smoke  therefrom  will 
carry  their  petition  to  the  gods,  who,  it  is  thought,  en¬ 
joy  the  smell  of  things  sacrificed,  as  we  read  in  the 
book  of  Genesis  that  God  “ smelled  a  sweet  savour” 
when  Noah  “ offered  burnt  offerings  on  the  altar.” 
(VIII.  21.)  Hence  the  sacredness  of  fire  as  bringing 
man  into  touch  with  the  gods;  hence  also,  the  chief 
place  given  in  India  to  Agni,  god  of  fire,  as  also  of  the 
sun,  from  which  it  was  believed  that  fire  came.  It  was 
to  the  god  Moloch,  .Jehovah  and  other  Asiatic  gods,  as 
also  to  American  gods  of  olden  time,  that  human  sacri¬ 
fices  were  offered. 


130 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Fire  was  also  worshipped  as  a  cleansing  thing,  ward¬ 
ing  off  diseases  and  evil  spirits.  For  that  reason,  in  an¬ 
cient  Rome  tapers  were  burned  in  the  chambers  of 
newly-born  babies,  as  in  Scotland  fires  were  kept  burn¬ 
ing  near  a  child  until  it  was  christened.  There  is  a 
saying  in  the  Hebrides  that  “no  evil  comes  from  fire,” 
and  it  was  an  ancient  custom  in  Britain,  in  times  of  any 
dreaded  disease,  to  light  what  is  called  the  “need-fire” 
when  both  men  and  cattle  were  driven  through  it  as  a 
remedy  against  the  evil.  At  certain  times  all  fires  were 
put  out,  and  then  relit  from  the  need-fire,  whence,  per¬ 
haps,  a  custom  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  of 
putting  out  the  candles  on  Easter  Eve  and  then  re¬ 
lighting  them  from  consecrated  newly-made  fire.  Every 
Old  May  Day  a  fire-festival,  known  as  the  Beltane,  was 
held,  probably  to  mark  the  arrival  of  the  spring,  always 
a  season  of  joy.  From  this  may  have  come  the  custom 
of  lighting  bonfires  to  mark  some  notable  event. 

E.  Sun,  Moon  and  Stars.  There  is  nothing  that 
would  excite  man’s  wonder  at  first  so  much  as  the  fact 
that  daylight  was  not  always  with  him;  that  for  a  time 
he  could  see  things  around  him,  and  then  that  the  dark¬ 
ness  crept  over  them  and  caused  him  to  grope  along  his 
path  or  lie  down  to  rest. 

Each  morning,  before  the  sun  was  seen,  rays  of  light 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


I31 

shot  upwards  as  if  to  herald  his  coining,  and  then  he 
arrived  to  flood  the  earth  with  more  light,  growing 
brighter  and  brighter  till  the  eye  could  scarce  look  upon 
him,  so  dazzling  was  the  glory.  Then  as  slowly  he  sank 
again,  the  light  rays  lingering  as  they  came  until  they 
passed  away  altogether. 

Therefore  the  natural  feeling  of  man  was  to  bow  be¬ 
fore  this  Lord  of  Light,  and,  in  the  earliest  known  form 
of  adoration,  kiss  his  hand  to  it,  paying  it  the  offering 
of  sacrifice.  There  is  an  old  story,  from  some  Jewish 
writings  known  as  the  Talmud,  which  describes  very 
beautifully  man’s  feeling  concerning  the  darkness  and 
the  light. 

It  relates  that  “when  Adam  and  Eve  were  driven  out 
of  the  garden  of  Eden,  they  wandered  over  the  face  of 
the  earth.  And  the  sun  began  to  set,  and  they  looked 
with  fear  at  the  lessening  of  the  light,  and  felt  a  horror 
like  death  steal  over  their  hearts.  And  the  light  of 
heaven  grew  paler  and  the  wretched  ones  clasped  each 
other  in  an  agony  of  despair.  Then  all  grew  dark. 
And  the  luckless  ones  fell  on  the  earth,  silent,  and 
thought  that  God  had  withdrawn  from  them  the  light 
forever;  and  they  spent  the  night  in  tears.  But  a  beam 
of  light  began  to  rise  over  the  eastern  hills,  after  many 
hours  of  darkness,  and  the  golden  sun  came  back  and 

K 


I32 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


dried  the  tears  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  then  they  cried 
out  with  joy  and  said,  ‘Heaviness  may  endure  for  a 
night,  but  joy  cometh  in  the  morning;  this  is  a  law 
that  God  hath  laid  upon  nature.’  ” 

The  worship  of  the  heavenly  bodies  is  not  only  very 
widespread,  but  continued  to  a  late  age  among  the 
great  nations  of  the  past,  as  the  names  of  their  gods 
and  the  remains  of  their  temples  prove.  In  Great  Brit¬ 
ain  pillars  were  once  raised  to  the  sun,  and  altars  to 
the  moon  and  the  earth  goddess,  while  the  story  of 
early  belief  is  preserved  in  the  names  given  to  some  of 
the  days  of  the  week,  as  Sun-day,  Mon-  or  Moon-day. 

Days  were  the  most  ancient  division  of  time,  and  as 
the  changes  of  the  moon  began  to  be  watched  they 
marked  the  weeks,  four  weeks  roughly  making  up  the 
time  which  was  seen  to  elapse  between  every  new 
moon.  (Moon  means  the  measurer ,  hence  our  word 
month ,  for  time  was  measured  by  nights  and  moons 
long  before  it  was  reckoned  by  days  and  suns  and 
years.)  To  distinguish  one  day  from  another,  names 
were  given;  and  as  it  was  a  belief  that  each  of  the 
seven  planets  presided  over  a  portion  of  the  day,  their 
names  were  applied  to  the  seven  days  of  the  week. 
The  Anglo-Saxons  from  whom  the  English  and  Ameri¬ 
can  peoples  are  descended,  consecrated  the  days  of  the 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


133 


week  to  their  seven  chief  gods.  Sunday  and  Monday 
to  the  sun  and  moon,  as  already  stated;  Tuesday  to 
Tuisco ,  father  of  gods  and  men;  Wednesday  to  Woden 
or  Odin ,  one-eyed  ruler  of  heaven  and  god  of  war; 
Thursday  to  Thor ,  the  god  of  thunder;  Friday  to  Friga , 
Woden’s  wife;  Saturday,  the  day  ruled  over  by  the 
planet  Saturn.  We  use  the  name  for  each  month  of  the 
year  which  the  Romans  gave,  but  the  Saxon  names 
were  very  different,  January  being  called  the  wolf- 
monat  or  wolf-month,  March  the  lenet-monat ,  because 
the  days  were  seen  to  lengthen ,  and  so  on. 

The  sun  is  worshipped  in  some  countries;  the  moon 
in  others;  sometimes  both  are  worshipped,  but  in  these 
cases,  moon  worship  is  often  the  older  of  the  two. 

I  have  dwelt  on  the  fact — always  to  be  borne  in 
mind — that  food-supply  rules  men’s  acts;  whatever 
helps  them  to  this  is  their  friend,  their  kind  god;  what¬ 
ever  hinders  this,  is  their  evil  god. 

Now  in  torrid  and  parched  lands  the  sun  is  dreaded, 
"because  he  dries  up  the  springs  and  water  courses,  emd 
shrivels  the  food-yielding  plants.  So  the  dwellers  there¬ 
in  welcome  the  moon  as  the  kindly  god,  because  it  is  at 
night  that  the  refreshing  dews  fall  and  that  the  flocks 
and  herds,  free  from  the  blistering  sunrays,  can  be 
moved  from  one  pasture  to  another.  The  Central 


I34 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


✓ 


Africans  dread  the  rising  of  the  sun,  and  worship  only 
the  moon,  and  to  her  the  ancient  races  of  South  Amer¬ 
ica  paid  honours  and  sacrificed,  because  they  believed 
that  she  alone  helped  plants  and  animals  to  grow.  The 
birth  of  the  new  moon  is,  and  has  been,  in  many  lands, 
a  time  of  rejoicing;  for  example,  the  ancient  Israelites 
flashed  the  news  by  fire  signals  from  hill  to  hill.  And 
her  waxing  and  waning  have  given  rise  to  a  heap  of 
customs  and  strange  beliefs,  some  of  which  have  not 
died  out.  For  example,  many  people  say  that  the 
moon’s  changes  rule  the  weather,  whereas  they  4o  noth¬ 
ing  of  the  kind.  If  they  did,  there  would  never  be  any 
settled  weather,  because  in  her  revolution  round  the 
earth  the  moon  changes  from  hour  to  hour. 

But  it  is  before  the  sun,  bringer  of  warmth,  light,  and 
life,  that  man,  through  all  ages  and  many  lands,  has 
bent  the  knee  in  worship  and  prayer,  and  sacrificed 
that  which  is  dearest  to  him.  And,  truly,  it  is  a  very 
noble  kind  of  worship.  To  tell  the  story  of  it  would  fill 
a  big  book.  It  would  take  us  to  ancient  Peru,  where 
the  people  believed  that  their  kings  were  the  children 
of  the  sun;  and  to  Mexico,  with  its  tale  of  bloody  sac¬ 
rifices;  then  northward  to  the  Blackfeet  Indians  of  to¬ 
day,  among  whom  the  sun  dance  is  a  great  yearly  festi¬ 
val.  One  of  them,  not  very  long  ago,  said  to  a  traveller 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


I35 


“We  don’t  understand  the  white  man’s  religion.  The 
black-robed  (Roman  Catholic  Priests)  teach  us  one 
thing,  the  men  with  white  neckties  (Protestant  mis¬ 
sionaries)  teach  us  another,  and  we  are  confused.  The 
Sun  God  is  all-powerful,  for  every  spring  he  makes  the 
trees  to  bud  and  the  grass  to  grow.  We  see  these 
things  with  our  own  eyes,  and  therefore  know  that  all 
life  comes  from  him.”  Crossing  the  Pacific  ocean,  we 
should  find  millions  of  Chinese  sun- worshippers ;  in 
India  the  Brahmins  would  show  us  their  sacred  books 
which  speak  of  the  sun  as  “the  shining  god  among  the 
gods;”  and  in  the  story  of  ancient  Persia  we  should 
read  about  Mithra,  whose  worship  spread  through  the 
Roman  Empire  so  far  westwards  that  altars  to  him 
have  been  found  in  the  North  of  England.  It  is  said 
that  our  festival  of  Christmas  Day  is  borrowed  from 
the  festival  of  Mithra  as  the  Unconquered  Sun.  Both 
Greece  and  Rome  had  their  sun  gods;  the  one  named 
Helios,  the  other  Sol,  about  the  temples  and  sacrifices 
to  whom  you  will  read  in  what  are  named  “ classic” 
histories.  In  Egypt  Ra,  the  sun,  was  chief  god,  and  to 
him  more  hymns  were  sung  and  more  prayers  offered 
than  to  any  other  of  the  many  gods  of  that  country; 
although  it  is  to  another  god  Aton,  that  hymns  as 
noble  and  beautiful  as  some  of  the  Psalms  of  David 


136  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


were  composed  (see  p.  196).  Herodotus,  who  is  called 
the  “  Father  of  History,”  tells  a  touching  story  of  an 
Egyptian  princess  who,  when  dying,  asked  her  father 
that  she  might  look  on  the  sun  once  in  the  year.  And 
we  can  picture  her,  crimson-robed  in  her  coffin,  carried 
from  her  tomb  every  spring,  escorted  by  a  company  of 
priests  and  maidens,  to  gaze  upon  the  bright  god,  and 
then  borne  to  her  dark  resting  place.  Sun  worship  must 
be  enormously  old,  because  all  the  great  nations  have 
sprung  from  savage  races  among  whom  that  worship 
began.  Everywhere  man  clings  to  what  he  has  been 
taught  to  believe,  and  untold  hundreds  of  years  pass 
before  any  changes  in  religions  are  made,  while  in  the 
rites  and  ceremonies  which  they  retain  they  preserve 
traces  of  their  origin. 

In  the  chapter  on  myths  about  the  stars  I  spoke  of 
the  belief  that  they  rule  human  fate.  Those  who  pro¬ 
fess  to  foretell  events  from  their  movements  are  called 
Astrologers  (Greek  astron,- star,  and  logos ,  discourse)  and, 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  are  people  in  civilized 
countries  who  still  believe  in  them.  The  desire  to  know 
the  future  makes  the  ignorant  the  dupes  of  fortune¬ 
tellers.  Among  the  ancient  Chaldeans  and  Hebrews 
astrology  was  mixed  up  with  star  worship,  the  stars 
being  looked  on  as  the  abode  of  angels  and  spirits. 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


137 


From  their  unchanging  places,  as  it  seemed,  in  the 
heavens,  they  were  named  “ fixed”  stars;  God  had  put 
them  there.  The  stars  that  kept  not  their  places, 
hence  called  “planets”  (Greek,  planao ,  to  wander) 
were  believed  to  have  broken  his  law,  and  were  there¬ 
fore  cast  into  “the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever.” 
As  for  the  “falling  stars,”  they  have  been  to  every 
people  a  source  of  terror,  and  omens  of  disaster.  The 
negroes  think  that  they  are  the  souls  of  dead  sorcerers 
coming  back  to  work  mischief;  the  Welsh  peasant  be¬ 
lieves  that  they  betoken  death  to  the  inmates  of  the 
house  over  which  they  fall,  and  the  Provencal  shep¬ 
herds  believe  that  they  are  souls  which  God  does  not 
want  to  keep  with  Him. 

F.  Animal  Worship.  We  have  seen  that,  to  the 
savage,  everything  that  moves  is  alive,  but  he  would 
not  fail  to  notice  that  both  animals  and  plants  were 
alive  in  a  different  sort  of  way.  The  water  swirled  and 
foamed,  the  volcano  hissed,  the  wind  howled  and  the 
thunder  boomed,  but  no  eyes  glistened  from  them,  no 
huge  claws  sprang  forth  to  tear.  And  the  brute  seemed, 
as  we  now  know  it  to  be,  so  like  to  man  in  many 
things,  and  withal  was  sometimes  so  much  stronger, 
that  it  quickened  his  fears  and  impelled  his  worship. 

Animals  of  all  kinds  play  a  great  part  in  the  history 


138  '  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


i 


of  religions.  Just  as  man’s  surroundings  shaped  his 
gods,  so  the  country  in  which  he  lived  ruled  the  ani¬ 
mals  that  he  worshipped.  In  the  far  North  these 
were  the  bear  and  the  wolf;  further  South  the  lion  and 
tiger  and  crocodile;  in  ancient  Egypt,  the  great  home  of 
animal  worship,  bulls,  serpents,  cats,  crocodiles,  hawks, 
and  many  other  animals  were  sacred;  further  East,  in 
India,  the  bull,  cow  and  so  forth;  for  the  list  is  too 
long  to  be  given  here.  With  so  many  from  which  to 
choose,  I  will  take  as  an  example  the  serpent  as  wor¬ 
shipped  not  only  by  savage,  but  by  higher,  races  well 
nigh  all  over  the  world.  So  cunning  and  subtle  seemed 
that  long,  limbless,  writhing,  brilliant-coloured,  un¬ 
canny  thing;  so  deadly  was  its  poison  fang,  so  fascinat¬ 
ing  the  glitter  of  the  eye  that  looked  out  from  its  hate¬ 
ful  face;  that  we  can  readily  understand  what  fear  it 
aroused.  Among  the  four  things  that  Solomon  said 
were  “too  wonderful  for  him,”  one  was  “the  way  of  a 
serpent  on  a  rock.”  Among  the  Dakotahs  and  Shaw- 
nees  the  words  for  spirit  and  snake  are  the  same;  ser¬ 
pent  worship  takes  hideous  shapes  among  the  Voodoos 
of  Hayti;  in  Malabar  a  room  is  set  apart  in  the  house 
for  the  snakes;  in  Madras  there  is  a  temple  to  which 
crowds  go  to  worship  them,  and  in  other  parts  of  India 
they  are  believed  to  be  the  incarnation  (i.  e.  the  cloth- 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


139 


ing  in  the  flesh)  of  some  saint  or  demi-god.  The  0 jib- 
ways  and  Cherokees  of  North  America  offer  sacrifices 
to  the  rattlesnake  as  a  god;  the  Peruvians  worshipped 
adders,  and  in  Tena- 
yuco,  in  Mexico,  an 
old  traveller  found  so 
many  huge  figures  of 
serpents  which  were 
worshipped  as  gods 
that  he  named  it  the 
Town  of  Serpents. 

Some  of  the  ancient 
mounds  scattered 
over  the  United 
States  are  serpent 
shaped,  but  their  pur¬ 
pose  is  not  known.  v 
In  ancient  Crete  the 
snake  was  conse¬ 
crated  to  the  Earth  ■FlG*  25‘  Snake-Worship  in 

Ancient  Greece 

Mother,  in  ancient  (Fr0m  Miss  Jane  E.  Harrison’s  Pro- 
Greece  and  Rome  it  legomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek 

was  the  god  of  heal-  Religion) 

ing;  the  citadel  of  Athens  was  defended  by  a  great  ser¬ 
pent,  and  there  were  snake  dances  in  the  streets  of  that 


140 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


city  just  as  today  there  are  among  the  Moqui  Indians, 
and  the  Nagas  of  Hindustan.  'And  just  as  the  Moquis 
coil  the  snakes  round  their  shoulders  and  hold  them  be¬ 
tween  their  teeth,  so  there  was  an  ancient  Christian  sect 
called  Ophites  (from  Greek  ophis,  a  serpent)  who  trained 
snakes  to  coil  themselves  in  holy  places.  Much  more 
could  be  told  you,  but  I  must  leave  off  to  add  one  sin¬ 
gular  example  of  animal  worship  among  the  Todas  of 
Southern  India.  These  people  worship  certain  buffaloes 
and  keep  them  in  sacred  dairies;  their  milk  is  a  sacred 
fluid  and  can  be  drunk  only  by  the  priests  who  have 
charge  of  the  animals.  Anyone  may  drink  the  milk  of 
other  buffaloes.  In  some  part  of  England  today  when 
a  cow  is  milked,  a  few  drops  are  spilt  on  the  ground, 
perhaps  a  relic  of  sacrifice  to  the  Earth  Mother. 

Savage  belief  in  kinship  with  animals  may  explain 
how  even  among  civilized  people  they  came  to  be  re¬ 
garded  as  wilfully  causing  the  death  of  men,  women 
and  children,  and  were  actually  tried  and  if  found 
guilty  were  hanged  or  burnt.  Under  the  Hebrew  code 
if  an  ox  gored  a  man  or  woman  it  was  stoned  to  death 
(Exodus  XXI.  28),  and  in  the  annals  of  animal  trials, 
the  chief  offenders  were  pigs  accused  of  devouring 
young  children.  In  the  case  of  caterpillars  and  other 
insects  which  damaged  fruit  and  other  trees,  because 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


141 

they  could  not  be  easily  captured,  they  were  cursed  by 
the  priests,  so  that  they  might  not  return  or  die.  And 
this  punishment  of  animals  went  on  for  a  thousand 
years  in  Europe!  In  ancient  Athens  if  a  man  was  killed 
by  a  stone  it  was  tried  and  condemned  to  be  cast  out¬ 
side  the  city  borders,  and  this  is  only  one  of  a  heap  of 
examples  of  punishment  also  of  lifeless  things  which 
had  caused  death. 

G.  Trees.  This  worship  is  found  all  over  the  world. 
The  life  that,  locked  up  within  trees  and  plants  during 
the  long  winter,  burst  out  in  leaf  and  flower  and  fruit,, 
and  seemed  to  moan  or  whisper  as  the  breezes  shook 
creaking  branch  and  murmuring  leaf;  was  that  not  also 
the  sign  of  an  indwelling  spirit? 

The  Ojibways  dislike  cutting  down  growing  trees, 
because  it  puts  them  to  pain:  the  West  Indian  negroes 
are  very  unwilling  to  cut  down  the  big  silk-cotton  tree 
through  fear  of  the  “duppy”  that  lives  in  it.  The 
Dyaks  of  Borneo  and  the  Filipinos  will  not  fell  certain 
trees  because  they  believe  that  the  souls  of  the  dead 
dwell  in  them:  the  “primitive  pagans”  of  Southern 
Nigeria,  as  they  are  called,  say  that  “when  any  of  us 
dies  his  spirit  goes  into  the  big  tree,  and  this  is  why  we 
will  not  have  it  cut,”  and  in  Oko  the  natives  will  not 
use  certain  trees  to  make  canoes  lest  the  spirits  should 


142 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


kill  them.  The  natives  of  Berar  in  India  will  not  even 
use  dead  wood;  the  Siamese  offer  cakes  and  rice  to  the 
takhien  tree  before  they  fell  it,  while,  in  like  custom, 
the  Austrian  peasant  begs  pardon  of  a  tree  before  his 
axe  touches  it,  and  the  Irish  rustic  will  not  cut  down 
the  white  thorn,  because  the  crown  of  thorns  which 
tortured  Jesus  was  said  to  have  been  made  from  it. 
An  old  writer  of  the  seventeenth  century  says  that 
“when  an  oake  is  being  felled  it  gives  a  kind  of  shriekes 
or  groanes  that  may  be  heard  a  mile  off  as  if  it  were  the 
genius  of  the  oake  lamenting.”  Turning  to  classic 
ground,  the  ancient  Roman  farmer,  before  clearing  the 
soil  of  trees,  fearing  the  anger  of  their  spirits,  sought 
to  appease  them  with  sacrifice  and  prayer,  and  the 
Greek  woodman  of  today,  as  he  plies  his  axe  and 
causes  the  tree  to  tremble  to  its  fall,  throws  himself 
facewards  on  the  ground  lest  the  Dryad  driven  out  of 
the  tree  should  see  and  punish  him. 

Like  all  unlettered  people  in  their  beliefs,  he  did  not 
invent  this;  it  came  down,  with  other  primitive  ideas, 
from  remote  times  when  his  forefathers  peopled  sea, 
stream,  tree  and  hill  with  nymphs;  Naiads  of  the 
springs,  Oreads  of  the  mountains,  Dryads  of  the  trees, 
and  Nereids  of  the  deep  waters;  nymphs  of  whom  an 
ancient  hymn  sings: 


NATURE-WORSHIP 


143 


“At  their  birth  there  sprang  up  pine  trees  or  tall-crested  oaks 
on  the  fruitful  earth,  flourishing  and  fair,  and  on  the  lofty  moun¬ 
tains  they  stand  and  are  called  the  groves  of  the  immortal  Gods 
which  in  nowise  doth  man  cut  down  with  the  steel.  But  when 
the  fate  of  death  approaches,  first  do  the  fair  trees  wither  on 
the  ground,  and  the  bark  about  them  moulders,  and  the  twigs 
fall  down,  and  even  as  the  tree  perishes  so  the  soul  of  the  nymph 
leaves  the  light  of  the  sun.” 

In  the  last  words  of  these  lovely  lines  there  is  the  old 
belief  that  the  fate  of  the  spirit  is  wrapped  up  with 
that  of  the  tree.  So  is  the  fate  of  man  and  the  for¬ 
tunes  of  the  harvest,  leading  to  a  heap  of  customs  to 
secure  the  help  of  the  tree  and  plant  spirits;  from  the 
sacrifice  of  human  beings  and  scattering  their  remains 
over  the  fields  to  the  kindlier  festivals  which  have 
lived  on  in  Jack-in-the-Green  and  other  May-Day 
frolics.  All  life  being  the  same  to  the  savage,  he  be¬ 
lieves  that  he  has  descended  from  trees  as  well  as  from 
animals,  and  the  belief  has  survived  in  many  forms. 
In  the  Greek  legend  the  god  Zeus  made  a  race  of  men 
from  the  ash;  in  Norse  legend  the  sons  of  Bor  took  two 
trees  and  made  men  out  of  them;  in  the  Mexican,  one 
of  its  lines  of  famous  kings  was  said  to  be  the  offspring 
of  two  trees.  Some  of  the  great  gods,  Tota  in  Mexico; 
Jupiter  Feretrius  (oak  god)  in  Rome;  Dionysus  in 
Greece,  were  worshipped  in  tree  form.  Then  among 
different  peoples  we  read  of  World  Life-Trees,  like  the 


144 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Yggdrasil  of  Norse  myth,  the  tree  of  fate  and  knowl¬ 
edge,  reminding  us  of  the  Tree  of  Knowledge  of  the 
Bible  story,  which,  like  some  other  legends  in  the  Book 
of  Genesis,  is  borrowed  from  Babylonian  sources. 

This  little  book  could  be  more  than  filled  with  talk 
about  tree  worship  and  all  to  which  it  has  led.  Much 
could  be  said  about  the  sacred  groves  of  savage  and 
historic  lands,  from  those  of  Africa  to  Britain,  home  of 
the  Druids,  and  about  all  the  rites  carried  on  in  them 
to  ward  off  or  cure  diseases  and  avert  other  troubles, 
but  there  is  only  one  interesting  thing  which  I  can  stop 
to  name,  and  that  is  that  ages  before  temples,  with  the 
images  of  the  gods  in  them,  were  built,  forests  were 
used  as  temples.  One  proof  of  this  is,  so  a  learned  Ger¬ 
man  tells  us,  that  the  word  temple  means  wood.  The 
Latin  templum  means  something  “cut  off,”  that  is,  set 
apart  as  sacred.  There  the  gods  were  sought;  there 
were  the  spots  whither  man  brought  his  offerings  to 
them  and  invoked  their  help.  In  this,  as  in  other 
things,  we  and  early  man  come  near  together,  for  the 
noble  trees  and  the  richly  coloured,  fragrant  flowers 
that  spring  from  the  Earth  Mother  can  never  fail  to 
delight  both  young  and  old,  and  to  make  the  thought¬ 
ful  feel  how  near  akin  is  their  life  to  ours.  A  great 
poet  has  confessed,  and  who  can  gainsay  him? 


NATURE  WORSHIP 


J45 


’Tis  my  belief  that  every  flower 
Enjoys  the  air  it  breathes. 

H.  Man.  Men  have  worshipped  other  men:  living 
ones  only  rarely;  and  dead  ones  who,  as  is  believed, 
live  in  the  spirit  land,  nearly  all  the  world  over.  But 
what  I  have  to  say  about  this  will  more  fitly  be  told  in 
the  twenty-seventh  chapter,  which  deals  with  the  belief 
in  a  soul  and  a  future  life. 


XXIV 


BELIEF  IN  MAGIC  AND  WITCHCRAFT 

All  the  rites  and  ceremonies  that  mankind  practise 
have  for  their  object  the  winning  of  the  favour,  or 
warding-off  the  wrath,  of  gods  and  lesser  spirits.  And 
as  the  man  who  was  the  chief  of  the  tribe  became,  so 
because  he  was  the  strongest  in  body,  the  most  fearless 
hunter  and  the  bravest  fighter,  so  the  man  who  was 
most  shrewd  and  agile  of  brain,  who  laid  claim  to 
“ occult”  that  is,  to  hidden  power,  became  the  magic- 
worker.  The  tribefolk  believed  that  he  had  power 
over  the  unseen  and  dreaded;  he  may  sometimes  have 
believed  it  himself,  and  hence  their  ready  yielding 
to  that  power.  Magic-worker,  wizard  or  sorcerer, 
“medicine  man”  or  priest,  for  he  is  called  by  one 
or  other  of  these  names  in  different  countries,  he  per¬ 
suaded  the  people  that  he  could  make  rain  or  sunshine, 
cause  or  cure  diseases,  which,  like  death  itself,  are 
believed  by  savage  races  to  be  the  work  of  evil  spirits; 
foretell  events,  cast  spells  and  charms  over  men  and 

women,  so  that  they  often  died  through  sheer  fright; 

146 


BELIEF  IN  MAGIC  AND  WITCHCRAFT  147 


bewitch  them  by  getting  possession  of  their  hair- 
cuttings  or  nail-parings,  or  saliva,  or,  what  seems  to  us 
oddest  of  all,  finding  out  their  name,  which  is  in  savage 
belief,  a  part  of  a  man’s  self,  and  therefore  kept  hidden 
lest  black  magic  be  worked  by  him  who  gets  to  know 
it;  change  himself  into  animals  and  plants;  work  him¬ 
self  into  a  frenzy,  which  to  others  was  proof  that  he 
was  in  close  touch  with  unseen  powers.  In  short, 
there  is,  among  the  lower  races,  no  event  in  their  lives 
which  does  not  fall  to  the  magic-worker  to  control, 
because  he  works  on  their  hopes  and  fears.  White 
Magic  is  when  he  uses  his  power  for  a  good  purpose; 
Black  Magic  is  when  he  uses  it  for  a  bad  one.  And  the 
essence  of  magic  is  belief  in  numberless  spirits  every¬ 
where  who  possess  non-natural  power,  linked  to  the 
belief  that  the  sorcerer  has  power  to  make  these 
spirits  do  his  bidding.  So  he  has  a  very  good  time, 
and  plenty  to  do.  Ages  back,  when  one  man  did 
many  things,  he  was  both  sorcerer  and  priest,  but  in 
the  course  of  time  it  fell  to  the  one  to  work  all  the 
marvels  of  the  magic  art,  and  to  the  priest  to  offer 
sacrifices  and  prayers,  and  otherwise  lead  the  people 
in  their  worship  of  their  gods.  Medicine-men,  rain¬ 
makers,  wizards,  conjurors,  and  sorcerers,  these  have 
abounded  everywhere;  and  even  among  us  now  there 

L 


148  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

.  j 

are  found,  under  other  names,  people  who  think  that 
they  have  power  with  the  unseen  and  that  they  know 
more  about  the  unknown  than  has  ever  been  or  will  be 
given  to  man  to  find  out. 

This  belief  in  magical  arts,  which  is  firmly  rooted 
among  the  lowest  tribes  of  mankind,  has  only  within 
the  last  two  hundred  years  died  out  among  civilized 
people,  and  even  lingers  still  in  out-of-the-way  places 
among  the  foolish  and  ignorant,  who  are  always  ready 
to  see  a  miracle  in  everything  that  they  cannot  under¬ 
stand.  Connected  with  it  is  the  horrid  belief  in  witch¬ 
craft,  through  which  many  thousands  of  innocent 
people  have  been  burned!  The  last  victim  in  England 
was  a  poor  man  who  was  swum  by  a  mob  just  sixty 
years  ago.  The  suspected  person  was  flung  into  water, 

and  the  guilt  was  proved  if  he  or  she  floated.  Witch- 

> 

craft  spread  with  a  belief  in  the  devil,  who  being 
looked  upon  as  the  enemy  of  God  and  man,  was  re¬ 
garded  as  the  cause  of  all  the  evil  in  the  world,  which 
he  worked  either  by  himself  or  by  the  aid  of  agents. 

It  was  held  that  persons  had  sold  themselves  to  him,  | 
he  in  return  promising  that  they  should  for  the  time 
being  lack  nothing,  and  should  have  power  to  torment 
man  and  woman  and  child  and  beast.  If  anyone, 
therefore,  felt  strange  pains;  if  any  sad  loss  came;  it 


BELIEF  IN  MAGIC  AND  WITCHCRAFT  149 

was  believed  to  be  the  maliceful  work  of  witches.  It 
was  they  who  caused  the  devastating  storm;  the  ruin 
to  the  crops;  the  sudden  death  of  the  cattle;  and  when 
anyone  pined  away  in  sickness,  it  was  because  some 
old  witch  had  cast  her  evil  eye  upon  him  or  made  a 
waxen  image  of  him  and  set  it  before  the  fire,  that 
the  sick  man  might  waste  away  as  it  melted.  The 
poor  creatures  who  were  charged  with  thus  being  in 
league  with  the  devil  were  sought  for  chiefly  among 
helpless  old  women.  To  have  a  wrinkled  face,  a  hairy 
lip,  a  squint  eye,  a  hobbling  gait,  a  squeaking  voice,  a 
scolding  tongue;  to  live  alone:  these  were  thought 
proofs  enough,  and  to  these  miserable  victims  torture 
was  applied  so  cruelly  that  death  was  a  welcome  re¬ 
lease. 

What  is  called  Divination  is  a  branch  of  Magic. 
It  works  in  two  ways:  1.  In  seeking  knowledge  of  the 
future  by  watching  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  or  by  dreams  and  unlooked-for  happenings; 
and  2.  By  killing  an  animal  and  inspecting  its  inside. 
Among  both  savage  and  ancient  peoples  the  liver  was 
most  often  chosen  as  the  sign-giver  because  it  was 
believed  to  be  the  seat  of  the  soul.  In  an  old  Baby¬ 
lonian  book  it  is  said:  “If  the  signs  of  the  liver  of  the 
animal  can  be  read,  the  mind  of  the  god  becomes 


150  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

clear.  To  read  the  god’s  mind  is  to  know  the  fu¬ 
ture.” 

Taboo.  Before  we  leave  Magic,  something  must  be 
said  about  taboo  (a  word  borrowed  from  the  Polyne¬ 
sians).  This  means  the  setting  of  something  apart 
which  must  not  be  touched  or  eaten  or  trespassed  upon; 
or  the  hedging  round  of  certain  men,  as  chiefs  or  priests, 
so  that  they  may  be  kept  wholly  apart  from  the 
common  people.  Those  who  broke  taboo  were  threat¬ 
ened  with  curses  and  severe  punishment,  the  effect  of 
which  often  was  that  the  offender  fell  sick  and  died  of 
sheer  funk.  As  an  example  of  this,  some  New  Zealand 
natives  found  and  used  a  tinder-box,  not  knowing  who 
was  the  owner,  and  when  they  heard  that  it  belonged 
to  their  chief  they  all  died  of  fright. 

One  chief  object  of  taboo  was  to  protect  food  and 
property  from  being  stolen,  and  hence  shells,  ropes  and 
other  things  would  be  put  round  trees  and  gardens. 
In  Samoa  a  stick  was  hung  crosswise  on  a  tree  to  sig¬ 
nify  to  anyone  stealing  the  fruit  that  he  would  have 
a  disease  through  his  body,  and  remain  fixed  to  the 
tree  till  he  died.  Banana  leaves  were  put  near  a  door¬ 
less  hut  to  show  that  it  must  not  be  entered,  and 
branches  laid  across  a  road  as  a  warning,  just  as  now- 
a-days  we  read  at  the  entrance  to  private  properties 


BELIEF  IN  MAGIC  AND  WITCHCRAFT  151 


“Notice:  Trespassers  will  be  prosecuted.”  In  East 
Africa  no  one  dare  steal  from  a  smith,  because  he 
knows  how,  when  heating  his  furnace  with  the  bellows, 
to  put  such  a  curse  on  the  thief  that  he  dies.  Then 
stones  were  put  up  to  mark  the  ownership  of  land, 
and  hence  were  believed  to  be  sacred.  Everywhere 
boundaries  are  marked  in  some  way,  and  in  ancient 
Rome  one  of  the  chief  deities,  Terminus,  as  god  of 
boundaries,  shared  the  great  temple  on  the  Capitol 
with  Jupiter,  and  all  over  the  country  festivals  were 
held  in  his  honour.  Even  the  names  of  people  were 
sometimes  tabooed,  because  as  already  told  you,  it 
was  believed  that  to  disclose  them  was  to  put  the 
named  in  the  power  of  another.  It  is  a  world-wide 
belief  that  to  name  the  dead  will  cause  them  to  appear, 
hence  they  are  even  more  tabooed  than  the  living. 
In  some  religions  the  real  name  of  the  god  may  not 
be  uttered,  and  another  name  is  used.  As  I  write  this, 
I  read  in  a  newspaper  that  a  number  of  monks  have 
been  expelled  from  a  famous  monastery  on  Mt.  Athos, 
in  Greece,  because  they  say  that  the  name  of  God  is 
an  actual  part  of  God  Himself.  But  a  long  chapter 
would  be  needed  to  tell  of  all  the  superstitions  that 
have  gathered  round  names. 

It  was  round  chiefs  and  priests  and  sacred  places 


I52 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


that  the  taboo  is  made  a  ring-fence.  Chiefs  were 
looked  upon  as  gods:  no  one  dare  touch  them,  they 
were  believed  to  have  magic  powers.  In  the  East  and 
in  ancient  Rome  Emperors  were  worshipped  as  gods, 
and  long  after  then  people  continued  to  believe  in  the 
divine  right  of  kings.  Sorcerers  or  medicine-men,  are 
sacred,  and,  still  more  so,  the  places  where  the  spirits 
dwell:  a  belief  which  still  lives  on  in  the  idea  that  a 
church  is  a  sacred  place,  and  that  a  house  is  not. 

But  taboo,  while  it  did  much  mischief,  for  the  belief 
in  the  power  of  a  curse  has  brought  terror  and  real 
harm  to  numberless  innocent  people,  did  some  good  in 
safeguarding  life  and  property  where  these  were  in¬ 
secure,  and  in  paving  the  way  for  the  laws  which  are 
made  by  every  people  for  the  common  good. 


XXV 


FETISH  WORSHIP  AND  IDOLATRY 

The  very  lowest  form  of  worship  is  that  paid  to  life¬ 
less  things  in  which  some  power  is  thought  to  dwell, 
and  is  called  “fetish”  worship,  from  a  Portuguese  word 
meaning  a  charm.  It  does  not  matter  what  the  object 
is;  it  may  be  a  stone  of  curious  shape,  the  stump  of  a 
tree  with  the  roots  turned  up,  even  an  old  hat  or  a  red 
rag,  so  long  as  some  good  is  supposed  to  be  had,  or 
some  evil  to  be  thwarted,  through  it.  So  offerings  and 
prayers  are  made  to  the  stone  or  stump  as  the  thing 
which  the  spirit  is  believed  to  occupy.  Each  man  may 
have  his  own  fetish,  or  there  may  be  a  fetish  of  the 
tribe;  in  either  case  the  spirit  inside  the  thing  is  ob¬ 
tained  by  the  help  of  the  village  sorcerer. 

The  customs  of  worshipping  a  fetish  as  the  abode  of 
a  spirit  and  of  setting  up  an  idol,  although  they  may 
appear  the  same  in  their  purpose,  are  different  in  prac¬ 
tice.  The  word  “idol”  comes  from  a  Greek  word 
meaning  an  image  or  form',  for,  unlike  the  fetish,  it  is 

often  cut  or  carved  in  some  sort  of  shape.  The  mate- 

153 


154 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


rials  out  of  which  different  races  shape  their  gods  show 
us  what  their  ideas  are.  These  may  be  mere  bundles  of 
grass  or  rudely  daubed  stones,  or  carved  with  the  care 
and  detail  displayed  in  the  household  idols  of  the 
East.  If  the  god  is  believed  in  as  all-powerful,  a  huge 
image  will  be  built,  to  which  will  be  given  a  score  of 
arms  and  legs,  the  head  of  a  lion,  the  feet  of  a  stag,  and 
the  wings  of  a  bird.  Sometimes  the  images  were  made 
hollow  so  that  the  priests  could  get  inside  them  and 
speak  through  them,  the  people  believing  that  it  was 
the  god  himself  who  spoke,  whence  perhaps  came  be¬ 
lief  in  oracles,  as  among  the  Druids  and  ancient  Greeks 
and  Egyptians.  Sometimes  it  is  treated  as  only  an 
image  or  symbol  of  the  god  or  gods  believed  in,  and  is 
not  mistaken  for  the  god  itself.  But  it  has  frequently 
been  regarded  by  savages  and  the  ignorant  as  a  god, 
and  believed  to  hear  prayer,  to  accept  gifts,  and  have 
power  to  bless  or  curse,  and  then  it  plays  the  part  of  a 
fetish.  It  is  held  to  blame  if  its  owner  does  not  get 
what  he  wants.  The  Negro  beats  his  idol  if  he  has  no 
luck:  the  Ostyak  of  Northern  Asia  thrashes  his  if  he 
kills  no  game;  the  Chinese  drag  theirs  in  the  dirt  till 
they  get  what  they  want;  then  they  clean  and  regild 
them.  There  is  an  amusing  story  of  a  Chinaman  who 
paid  an  idol  to  cure  his  daughter,  but  she  died,  so  he 


FETISH  WORSHIP  AND  IDOLATRY  155 

brought  an  action  against  it,  and  it  was  banished  from 
the  temple.  There  are  many  other  stories  of  idols 
maltreated  for  not  doing  what  their  worshippers  wanted, 
while  as  showing  how  real  they  are  to  them,  we  read  of 
Russian  peasants  covering  up  the  pictures  of  a  saint 
so  that  he  should  not  see  them  do  wrong;  and  of  Italian 
robbers  praying  to  images  of  the  Virgin  Mary  for 
success,  and  promising  her  a  share  of  the  plunder. 

Idol  worship  is  not  universal:  it  is  rather  late  in 
man’s  history;  it  is  absent  or  rare  among  many  savage 
races,  and  is  forbidden  among  Mohammedans,  Jews, 
and  Protestant  Christians. 


XXVI 


SACRIFICE  AND  PRAYER 

i.  Sacrifice.  The  reason  for  offering  sacrifices  is  ex¬ 
plained  by  man’s  dealings  with  his  fellow-man. 

When  we  feel  that  we  have  vexed  our  friends,  or  that 
for  some  cause  they  are  angry  with  us,  our  first  desire 
is  to  remove  the  anger  by  an  offering  of  some  kind; 
while  towards  those  to  whom  we  feel  grateful  for  their 
kindness,  we  show  our  love  and  thanks  by  gifts. 

In  this  way,  sacrifices  or  offerings  to  the  dead,  both 
to  supply  their  supposed  needs,  and  to  appease  their 
spirits;  to  idols;  and  to  the  seen  and  unseen  powers  of 
good  and  evil,  began;  and  have  continued  in  different 
forms  among  all  nations  to  the  present  day.  One  kind 
of  sacrifice  is  offered  from  a  feeling  of  thanksgiving;  an¬ 
other  as  a  bribe  to  quiet  or  appease  the  gods  thought  to 
be  angry,  and  who,  being  looked  upon  as  big  men, 
were  thereby  supposed  to  be  humoured  like  cross  and 
sulky  people. 

A  large  number  of  sacrifices  were  made  to  the  gods  to 
insure  their  help;  so  that  the  harvests  might  be  abun¬ 
dant,  and  the  flocks  and  herds  multiplied.  Of  course 

156 


SACRIFICE  AND  PRAYER 


i57 

men  would  offer  the  best  of  what  they  had,  and  would 
pick  the  finest  fruits  and  flowers  as  gifts  to  the  gods,  or 
burn  upon  a  raised  pile  of  stones  called  an  altar  the 
most  spotless  of  their  flocks.  Sometimes  the  sacrifice 
takes  the  form  of  a  meal  shared  with  the  gods,  who  are 
believed  to  enjoy  the  essence  of  the  thing  offered  as  it 
ascends  to  them  in  the  smoke  (see  p.  129).  Often,  be¬ 
lieving  thereby  to  win  the  favour  of  the  gods,  men 
mutilate  and  starve  themselves,  and  work  themselves, 
into  a  state  of  frenzy  whereby  they  lose  all  self-controL 
In  village  festivals  of  the  gods  in  the  East,  when  ex¬ 
citement  runs  high,  they  will  pierce  their  tongues  with 
skewers,  and  the  skin  of  their  backs  with  hooks  on 
which  they  swing  in  mad  dance  to  the  beating  of  tom¬ 
toms.  And  because  the  surrender  of  the  nearest  and 
dearest  was  often  thought  necessary  to  allay  the  anger r 
or  secure  the  help,  or  ward  off  the  vengeance,  of  the 
god,  the  lives  of  dear  ones  were  offered,  and  this  is  one 
of  the  chief  causes  of  the  hideous  and  revolting  rites 
which  curdle  one’s  blood  to  read  about,  and  of  which 
every  land  and  every  age  have  been  the  spectators.  It 
was  the  appalling  story  of  human  sacrifices  that  made 
a  great  Roman  poet  utter  bitter  words  about  the  cruel 
deeds  which  religion  could  prompt  men  to  commit. 

2.  Prayer.  To  cry  for  help  when  we  are  in  danger 


158  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


is  our  first  act;  to  ask  for  what  we  want  from  those 
who  seem  able  and  willing  to  give  it  is  both  natural 
and  right.  So  man  prayed  to  his  gods,  and  prays  still, 
for  to  the  end  of  time  the  deep  long  cry  of  mankind  to 
u blocks  of  wood  and  stone”  and  to  the  unseen  powers 
around  and  above  him  will  continue.  Rude  and  hide¬ 
ous  as  may  be  the  idol  to  which  the  poor  savage  tells 
his  story  of  need  or  sorrow,  we  must  stand  in  awe  as  we 
think  of  the  soul  within  him  that  hungers  for  its  food, 
even  as  the  body  hungers  for  the  bread  that  perisheth. 
Of  course  he  prays  in  his  ignorance  for  many  weak  and 
foolish  things,  to  grant  which  would  be  really  hurtful 
to  him.  In  this  he  is  like  children  who  ask  their  par¬ 
ents  for  something  which  those  parents  know  is  not 
good  for  them,  and  who  think  themselves  badly  treated 
because  they  are  denied  it.  At  its  lowest,  prayer  is 
offered  for  the  needs  of  the  body,  as  when  the  North 
American  Indian  asks  his  god  Wohkonda  to  help  him 
to  be  able  to  take  scalps  or  capture  horses;  or  as  when 
the  Gold  Coast  negro  asks  his  god  to  give  him  plenty 
of  rice  and  yams  and  gold;  or  as  when  people  in 
churches  pray  for  rain,  or,  in  time  of  war,  that  God 
will  give  them  the  victory  over  their  enemies,  who  are 
also  praying  to  him  to  give  them  the  victory. 

At  its  highest,  prayer  is  offered  to  satisfy  the  hunger 


SACRIFICE  AND  PRAYER 


159 


of  the  soul.  All  of  us  know  what  is  called  the  Lord’s 
Prayer,  and  here  are  two  ancient  prayers  wherein  what 
is  asked  for  may  find  an  echo  in  our  hearts.  One  of 
them  is  the  prayer  of  Agur  in  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon 
(XXX.  7-9). 

“Two  things  have  I  required  of  thee;  deny  me  them  not 
before  I  die.  Remove  far  from  me  vanity  and  lies;  give  me 
neither  poverty  nor  riches;  feed  me  with  food  convenient  for 
me;  lest  I  be  full  and  deny  thee,  and  say,  who  is  the  Lord?  or 
lest  I  be  poor  and  take  the  Name  of  my  God  in  vain.” 

Older  than  this  is  one  uttered,  perhaps  more  as  a 
pious  wish  rather  than  to  any  god  supposed  to  hear,  by 
a  Greek  whose  name  is  unknown. 

“May  I  never  devise  evil  against  any  man,  if  any  devise  evil 
against  me,  may  I  escape  uninjured  and  without  the  need  of 
hurting  him.  May  I  love,  seek  and  attain  only  to  that  which 
is  good.  May  I  wish  for  all  men’s  happiness  and  envy  none. 
May  I  never  rejoice  in  the  ill-fortune  of  one  who  has  wronged 
me.  .  .  .  May  I  to  the  extent  of  my  power,  give  all  needful 

help  to  my  friends  and  to  all  who  are  in  want.  When  visiting 
those  in  grief  may  I  be  able  by  gentle  and  healing  words  to 
soften  their  pain.  May  I  accustom  myself  to  be  gentle  and 
never  be  angry  because  of  circumstances.  May  I  never  discuss 
who  is  wicked  and  what  wicked  things  he  has  done,  but  know 
good  men  and  follow  in  their  footsteps.” 

When  I  read  this,  I  thought  of  the  wise  words  of  a 
friend  who  said,  “Who  rises  from  prayer  a  better  man, 
his  prayer  is  answered.” 


XXVII 


ANIMISM:  MAN’S  IDEAS  ABOUT  THE  SOUL 

AND  A  FUTURE  LIFE 

i.  The  Soul.  We  have  learnt  that  because  man  saw 
all  nature  to  be  in  motion,  he  believed  that  spirits 
dwelt  in  all,  hence  the  world-wide  belief  in  what  is 
called  Animism  (from  Latin,  anima ,  life  or  soul). 
Words  come  in  to  tell  us  what  in  the  course  of  time 
was  man’s  notion  about  a  soul.  The  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  living  and  dead  is  this:  the  living  man 
breathes  and  moves;  the  dead  man  has  ceased  to 
breathe  and  is  still.  Now  the  word  spirit  means 
breath ,  and  in  the  leading  languages  of  the  world  the 
word  used  for  soul  or  spirit  is  that  which  signifies 
breath  or  wind.  But  the  learned  and  the  ignorant 
alike  have  not,  nor  is  it  possible  that  anyone  ever  can 
have,  any  clear  idea  about  the  soul.  The  common  no¬ 
tion  is  that  at  death  it  leaves  the  body  as  a  sort  of 
filmy  thing  or  shadow  or  vapour.  The  Congo  negroes 
leave  the  house  of  the  dead  unswept  for  a  year  lest 

the  dust  should  injure  the  delicate  substance  of  the 

160 


ANIMISM 


161 


ghost;  English,  Chinese,  and  Indians  alike  will  keep 
some  door  or  window  open  through  which  the  depart¬ 
ing  soul  may  leave,  and  it  is  a  German  saying  that  a 
door  should  not  be  slammed  lest  a  soul  be  pinched  in  it! 

The  savage  thinks  that  the  spirit  can  leave  the  body 
during  sleep,  and  so  whatever  happens  to  him  in  his 
dreams  seems  as  real  and  true  as  if  it  had  taken  place 
while  he  was  awake.  If  he  sees  some  dead  friend  in  his 
sleep,  he  believes  either  that  the  dead  have  come  to 
him  or  that  his  spirit  has  been  on  a  visit  to  his  friend, 
and  he  is  very  careful  not  to  awake  anyone  sleeping 
lest  the  soul  should  happen  to  be  away  from  the  body. 
This  idea  of  his  “ other  self,”  as  it  has  been  called, 
would  be  quickened  by  seeing  his  reflection  in  water, 
by  his  shadow,  which  the  Fijians  called  “the  dark 
spirit,”  by  the  mocking  echo  of  his  voice,  and  other 
things.  Believing  that  a  man’s  soul  could  go  in  and 
out  of  his  body,  it  was  also  thought  that  demons  could 
be  drawn  in  with  the  breath,  and  that  yawning  and 
sneezing  were  proofs  of  their  presence.  So  what  is 
called  an  invocation  was  spoken  to  ward  them  off,  of 
which  we  have  a  trace  in  the  custom  of  saying  “God 
bless  you”  when  anyone  sneezes. 

According  to  an  old  Jewish  legend,  “The  custom  of 
saying  ‘God  bless  you’  when  a  person  sneezes  dates 


162 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


from  Jacob.  The  Rabbis  say  that  before  the  time  that 
Jacob  lived,  men  sneezed  once  and  that  was  the  end  of 
them;  the  shock  slew  them.  This  law  was  set  aside  at  the 
prayer  of  Jacob  on  condition  that  in  all  nations  a  sneeze 
should  be  hallowed  by  the  words  ‘  God  bless  you.’  ” 

Diseases  were  said  to  be  caused,  among  other  things, 
by  the  soul  staying  away  too  long  from  the  body,  and 
the  bringing  of  it  back  is  a  part  of  the  priest’s  or  wiz¬ 
ard’s  work.  Among  all  the  peoples  of  Borneo  it  is  be¬ 
lieved  that  when  anyone  is  very  ill  the  soul  has  left  the 
body,  and  a  soul-catcher  is  sent  for  to  recapture  it. 
He  shows  something  small  in  which  he  pretends  that 
the  soul  is  lodged;  this  he  puts  on  the  sick  person’s 
head  and  rubs  it  in,  thus  making  believe  that  the  soul 
has  re-entered  the  body.  If  the  patient  dies,  his  rela¬ 
tives  shout  in  his  ear,  “Come  back;  here  we  have  food 
ready  for  you.”  Savages  dread  having  their  portraits 
taken,  because  they  think  that  this  takes  their  souls 
out  of  themselves.  When  a  French  doctor  was  in 
Madagascar  and  photographed  some  of  the  natives, 
they  accused  him  of  taking  their  souls  to  sell  when  he 
left,  and,  to  pacify  them,  he  had  to  pretend  to  catch 
the  souls  in  a  basket  and  return  them  to  the  people 
whom  he  had  photographed. 

All  these  ideas,  crude  as  they  are,  live  on  among 


ANIMISM 


163 


people  long  after  they  have  risen  from  savagery,  and  in 
fact  remain  among  us,  although  their  first  meaning  is 
hidden  in  such  sayings  as  a  man  being  “out  of  his 
mind,”  or  “beside  himself,”  or  “come  to  himself.”  If 
the  body  has  suffered  any  loss  in  limb  or  otherwise,  the 
soul  is  thought  to  be  maimed  too.  And  the  belief  that 
it  will  need,  after  it  leaves  the  body,  all  the  things 
which  it  has  had  here  explains  the  custom  of  killing 
wives  and  slaves  to  follow  the  deceased;  and,  as  among 
very  low  races  lifeless  things  are  said  to  have  souls,  of 
placing  clothes,  weapons,  and  ornaments  in  the  grave 
for  the  dead  person’s  use  in  another  world.  It  is 
within  a  very  few  years  that  in  Europe  the  soldier’s 
horse  that  follows  his  dead  master  in  the  funeral  pro¬ 
cession  was  shot  and  buried  with  him. 

Man  regarding  himself  as  surrounded  by  spirits, 
dwelling  in  everything  and  all-powerful  to  do  him  good 
or  harm,  shaped  his  notions  about  them  as  they  seemed 
to  smile  or  frown  upon  him.  Not  only  did  he  look 
upon  sickness  as  often  the  work  of  demon  spirits,  but 
in  his  fear  he  filled  the  darkness  with  ghosts  of  the 
dead  rising  from  their  graves,  shrieking  at  his  door, 
sitting  in  his  house,  tapping  him  on  the  shoulder,  and 
breaking  the  silence  with  their  squeaking  or  whistling 
tones.  Even  today  the  report  that  a  ghost  has  been 

M 


1 64  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


seen  will  draw  crowds  to  the  spot,  and  many  people  are 
afraid  to  sleep  in  a  room  which  is  said  to  be  haunted. 
For  there  is  in  all  of  us  a  certain  amount  of  fear,  which 
has  come  down  to  us  from  remote  forefathers  and 
which  is  aroused  when  anything  unsuspected  happens. 
It  “ makes  us  jump”  as  we  say.  Knowledge,  and 
knowledge  only,  drives  away  belief  in  bogeys,  and 
ghosts,  and  other  ghoulish  things. 

2.  The  Future  Life.  The  rude  beliefs  about  spirits 
and  dreams,  and  the  customs  observed  at  burials,  show 
us  that,  however  shapeless  man’s  idea  of  another  life 
may  be,  he  has  from  the  earliest  times  believed  that 
the  spirit  or  breath ,  the  ghost  (which  comes  from  the 
same  root  as  gust),  departs  to  dwell  elsewhere  when  the 
body  is  cold  and  still  in  death.  The  highest  and  lowest 
races  of  men  have  tried  to  form  some  notion  of  what 
that  blessed  state  is  like  where  happiness  is  given  to  the 
good,  where  friends  “  loved  long  since  and  lost  awhile,” 
will,  with  smiling  angel- faces,  welcome  us;  or  what  that 
dark  state  may  be  where  misery  and  wanhope  (despair) 
dwell.  As  savages  believe  that  both  diseases  and 
death  are  due  to  sorcerers  or  to  evil  spirits,  they  do 
not,  as  we  do,  draw  any  line  between  this  world  and 
another;  the  dead  are  thought  of  as  continuing  their  life 
here  in  ghostly  form.  The  belief  that  the  soul  can  live 


i 


ANIMISM 


165 

apart  from  the  body  and  that  animals,  plants  and  life¬ 
less  things  have  souls,  makes  easy  the  passage  to  or  be¬ 
lief  in  what  is  called  Transmigration,  or  the  transfer  of 
a  man’s  soul  to  another  man,  or  to  an  animal,  plant  or 
lifeless  thing.  And  this  belief  survives  in  some  of  the 
higher  religions,  as  in  Hinduism  and  Buddhism.  The 
deeds  that  anyone  does  in  this  life  rule  his  fate  in  the 
next.  In  India  the  thief  who  steals  gold  will  become  a 
rat;  the  cruel  become  some  blood-thirsty  beast;  in 
Africa  the  souls  of  good  men  become  snakes,  and  the 
souls  of  bad  men  jackals.  So  deeply-rooted  is  the  feel¬ 
ing  that  the  dead  are  alive  and  even  more  powerful  to 
help  or  harm  because  their  spirits,  free  from  their  bodies 
can  wander  whither  they  choose,  that  the  worship  of 
ancestors  is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  widely  spread  of 
all  cults  (Latin,  cultus ,  “worship,”  and  also  “tilling,” 
as  in  our  word  “cultivate”).  In  India,  to  this  day,  the 
making  of  dead  men  into  gods  goes  on  among  the 
lower  tribes.  Even  in  their  lifetime  men  renowned 
as  powerful  ..or  holy  have  been  worshipped,  and  well 
nigh  every  people  has  its  culture-hero  who  is  adored 
as  having  founded  cities,  brought  knowledge  of  farm¬ 
ing,  or  of  working  in  metals,  or  who,  like  Prome¬ 
theus,  stole  fire  from  heaven  for  the  use  of  men;  or 
who,  like  Cadmus,  taught  them  the  alphabet. 


i66 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


In  the  honours  paid  to  the  dead  in  China  ancestor- 
worship  reaches  its  highest  pitch.  From  time  to  time 
there  appear  notices  in  the  Pekin  Gazette ,  the  oldest 
newspaper  in  the  world,  that  this  or  that  dead  person 
is  promoted  to  high  rank,  or  made  a  god.  In  1907  the 
Emperor  of  China  issued  a  decree  that  the  famous  sage 
Confucius,  who  lived  five  hundred  years  before  Christ, 
should  be  raised  from  the  level  of  the  sun  and  moon  to 
the  level  of  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  and  his  spirit 
given  a  place  equal  to  that  of  the  dead  emperors  them¬ 
selves.  When  the  Japanese  were  at  war  with  Russia  in 
1905  Admiral  Togo  addressed  the  spirits  of  the  de¬ 
parted  and  gave  thanks  to  them  as  those  through  whose 
help  the  victories  had  been  gained.  But  we  need  not 
go  to  the  Far  East  for  examples.  Among  millions  of 
Roman  Catholics  and  Mohammedans  the  worship  of 
saints,  numbers  of  whom  are  old  pagan  gods  whose 
names  have  been  only  slightly  changed,  prevails; 
prayers  and  offerings  -are  made  to  them;  and  their 
burial  places  held  so  sacred  that  their  graves  have  be¬ 
come  the  sites  of  churches  and  temples.  In  their  life¬ 
time  they  were  believed  to  possess  magical  power,  as 
we  read  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  (XIX.  12)  about 
Saint  Paul  that  “  from  his  body  were  brought  unto  the 
sick  handkerchiefs  and  aprons,  and  the  diseases  de- 


ANIMISM 


167 


parted  from  them,  and  the  evil  spirits  went  out  of 
them.”  In  Roman  Catholic  churches  every  altar  must 
have  within  it  the  relics  of  a  saint,  so  for  hundreds  of 
years  there  has  been  ceaseless  demand  for  relics,  espe¬ 
cially  those  of  martyrs.  One  relic  most  coveted  is  a 
piece  of  the  Cross  on  which  Jesus  Christ  was  crucified > 
and  which  was  said  to  have  been  discovered  by  the 
Empress  Helena,  mother  of  Constantine.  Little  frag¬ 
ments  of  it  were  given  to  the  most  important  churches. 
But  these  and  numberless  other  relics,  many  of  which 
are  believed  to  work  'miracles,  are  frauds.  Quite  a 
large  trade  in  them  was  carried  on  between  Europe  and 
the  East.  Only  two  years  ago,  the  priests  of  St.  John’s 
Roman  Catholic  church  in  New  York  were  grief 
stricken  because  a  part  of  the  sepulchre  in  which 
Jesus  was  laid,  a  piece  of  the  rope  with  which  he  was 
scourged,  and  other  relics,  were  stolen.  Shortly  before 
then  a  Prince  offered  £800,000  for  the  remains  of 
Nicholas,  the  patron  saint  of  Russia.  Louis  the  Ninth 
of  France,  who  lived  in  the  thirteenth  century,  built  a 
famous  chapel  wherein  were  preserved  a  piece  of  the 
Cross,  the  rod  of  Moses,  a  portion  of  the  baby  linen  of 
Jesus,  of  the  lance,  chain  and  sponge  of  his  Passion, 
and  a  part  of  the  skull  of  Saint  John  the  Baptist. 
Herein,  as  in  so  much  else,  the  civilized  is  one  with  the 


1 68  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

savage  who  carries  about  with  him  the  skull  bones  of  his 
ancestor  as  a  charm  against  evil  spirits  and  sorcerers. 
But  so  endless  is  the  chapter  of  man’s  credulity  (Lat.  credo , 
to  believe)  that  a  big  book  could  be  filled  with  a  list  of  the 
relics  in  the  churches  and  monasteries  of  Europe  alone. 

While  among  higher  races  we  find  the  ideas  about  an 
after-life  and  another  world  less  crude  than  among 
lower  races,  they  have  one  thing  in  common.  They  put 
into  shape  what  they  most  desire;  their  pictures  of 
heaven  perforce  are  copied  from  the  earth;  and  all  that 
they  love  here,  whether  chaste  or  coarse,  they  hope  to 
have  in  larger  measure  there,  even  as  they  wish  to  shut 
out  from  thence  all  that  they  dread  now.  The  thought 
that  the  two  worlds  are  thus  linked  together  is  very 
beautifully  expressed  in  one  of  the  old  Persian  sacred 
books.  The  soul  of  a  good  man  is  pictured  as  being 
met  in  the  other  world  by  a  lovely  maiden,  “noble, 
with  brilliant  face,  one  of  fifteen  years,  as  fair  in  her 
growth  as  the  fairest  creatures.  Then  to  her  speaks  the 
soul  of  the  pure  man,  asking,  ‘What  maiden  art  thou 
whom  I  have  seen  here  as  the  fairest  of  maidens  in 
body?’  She  answers,  ‘I  am,  O  youth,  thy  good  thoughts, 
words,  and  works,  thy  good  law,  thine  own  law  of 
thine  own  body.  Thou  hast  made  the  pleasant  yet 
pleasanter  to  me,  the  fair  yet  fairer.’  ” 


ANIMISM  169 

Man  has  placed  his  heaven  in  some  far-off  Island  of 
the  Blest,  or  in  some  sunny  land, 

“Deep  meadow’d,  happy,  fair  with  orchard  lawns 
And  bowery  hollows  crown’d  with  summer  sea.” 

Or  he  has  thought  of  the  soul  as  departing  to  the 
west  where  the  sun  sets,  or  to  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars 
themselves.  This  explains  the  Christian  custom  of 
burying  the  body  with  its  head  to  the  west,  so  that  at 
the  resurrection  day  it  should  rise  looking  towards  the 
east;  a  custom  also  found  among  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  other  peoples. 


XXVIII 


POLYTHEISM:  OR  BELIEF  IN  MANY  GODS 

I  have  dwelt  on  the  importance  of  your  remembering 
that  there  has  never  been  any  break  in  the  history  of 
man,  whether  as  Worker  or  Thinker.  This  makes  clear 
why  his  ideas  about  things  melt  one  into  the  other,  so 
that  he  has  never  wholly  got  rid  of  his  old  beliefs  in 
advancing  to  newer  ones. 

Among  the  higher  races  we  find  the  belief  in  swarms 
of  spirits  leading  up  to  a  belief  in  groups  of  great  gods, 
each  ruling  some  part  of  nature.  Such  are  Wind, 
Rain,  Thunder  and  Air  Gods;  Forest,  River,  and  Sea 
Gods;  Seedtime  and  Harvest  Gods;  Gods  of  War,  Dis¬ 
ease,  Death  and  the  Underworld,  and  so  on  through  a 
long  bewildering  list.  Much  that  I  have  said  already 
about  nature-worship  applies  to  the  worship  of  these 
deities,  and  need  not  be  repeated.  In  ancient  Egypt 
each  nome  or  province  had  its  own  god;  among  the 
Hebrews,  Jehovah  was  a  god  among  other  gods,  be¬ 
coming  a  chief,  and,  later  on,  the  only  god;  in  Rome, 

gods  from  other  lands  were  admitted  to  a  place  in  her 

170 


POLYTHEISM 


171 

Pantheon  (Greek  pan ,  all;  and  theos,  a  god),  the  num¬ 
ber  becoming  so  large  as  to  give  rise  to  a  witty  saying 
that  the  city  was  too  thickly  peopled  with  them  to 
leave  room  for  men. 

Polytheism,  therefore,  included  various  beliefs;  it 
rarely  led  to  disputes  as  to  whether  one  god  was  true, 
and  all  the  others  false;  and  a  long  time  passed  before 
men  quarrelled  over  these  matters  and  that  so  bitterly 
as  to  burn  their  fellow  creatures  for  “heresy.”  (Greek 
haireo,  to  choose,  that  is,  to  think  for  one’s  self.) 

It  is  in  Polytheism  that  belief  in  gods  as  “  non- 
natural”  men  takes  shape.  Trying  to  imagine  what 
they  must  be  like,  man  could  not  make  the  gods  in  any 
other  image  than  his  own.  There  was  nothing  else 
with  which  to  compare  them,  and  this  anthropomor¬ 
phism,  as  it  is  called  (Greek  anthropos,  man,  and 
morphe ,  shape)  runs  through  all  the  higher  religions. 
Xenophanes,  an  old  Greek  writer,  who  lived  five  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  Christ,  shrewdly  says:  “Men  think 
that  the  gods  were  born  as  men  were  born,  and  that 
they  have  forms,  countenances  and  habits,  such  as  mor¬ 
tals  have.  The  Ethiopian  makes  his  god  black,  and  the 
Thracian  makes  him  blue-eyed  and  blond.  And  if  ani¬ 
mals  had  hands  wherewith  to  fashion  images,  as  men 
have  done,  they  would  give  to  the  gods  animal  shapes 


172 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


like  their  own:  and  the  gods  of  horses  would  have  the 
shape  of  horses,  and  those  of  oxen  the  shape  of  oxen.” 
But,  Xenophanes  adds,  there  is  but  One  Supreme  God, 
who  is  like  mortals  neither  in  body  nor  in  thought.  As 
showing  that  the  Hebrew  conceived  of  God  as  a  sort  of 
very  big  man,  the  Book  of  Genesis  narrates  how  he 
walked  in  the  garden  of  Eden,  spying  out  whether 
Adam  and  Eve  were  disobeying  his  commands,  while 
in  another  book  we  are  told  that  God  helped  Judah  to 
drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  mountains,  but  that  he 
“  could  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  valley,  be¬ 
cause  they  had  chariots  of  iron.”  (Judges  I.  19.) 

When  we  read  these  and  many  other  stories  of  the 
like  kind  in  the  early  books  of  the  Bible  describing  God 
as  doing  and  approving  actions  which  all  right  -minded 
people  would  shrink  from  doing,  we  must  keep  in  mind 
that  they  are  of  value- in  telling  us  what  crude  notions 
about  God  were  held  at  the  time  those  books  were  writ¬ 
ten.  Many  centuries  .passed  before  the  Jews  ad¬ 
vanced  to  the  higher  ideas  which  we  find  in  the  later 
books  of  the  Old  Testament,  as  in  some  of  the  Psalms 
and  prophetic  writings. 


XXIX 


DUALISM,  OR  BELIEF  IN  TWO  GODS 

Man,  as  he  came  to  think  more  and  more  about 
things,  and  not  to  be  simply  frightened  into  an  un¬ 
reasoning  worship  of  living  and  dead  objects,  lessened 
still  further  the  number  of  ruling  powers,  and  advanced 
to  a  belief  in  two  mighty  gods  fighting  for  mastery 
over  himself  and  the  universe.  Becoming  by  degrees 
conscious  of  himself  as  a  person,  his  gods  were  con¬ 
ceived  of  more  clearly  as  persons,  and  became  reduced 
in  number. 

On  the  one  hand  was  a  power  that  appeared  to 
dwell  in  the  calm,  unclouded  blue,  and  with  kind  and 
loving  heart  to  scatter,  welcome  gifts  upon  men;  on 
the  other  hand  was  a  power  that  appeared  to  be  harsh 
and  cruel,  that  lashed  the  sea  into  fury,  covered  earth 
and  sky  with  blackness,  swept  man’s  home  and  crops 
away  in  torrent  and  in  tempest,  chilled  him  with  icy 
hand,  and  gave  his  children  to  the  beasts  of  prey.  One 
a  god  of  light,  smiling  in  the  sunbeam;  the  other  a  god 
of  darkness,  scowling  in  the  thundercloud;  one  ruling 

i73 


I74 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


by  good  and  gentle  spirits,  the  other  by  fierce  and  evil 
spirits.  And  belief  in  these  lesser  spirits  doing  the 
bidding  of  the  Powers  of  Good  and  Evil  has  never 
wholly  died  out  save  among  people  who  may  rightly 
claim  to  be  civilized. 

Many  religions  contain  traces  of  dualism;  as,  for 
example,  in  ancient  Egypt  we  find  Osiris  the  good  god 
and  Sat,  the  evil  god,  who  like  all  such,  had  more  wor¬ 
ship  paid  to  him  because  people  were  afraid  of  him; 
and  in  Madagascar  today  the  good  god  Zamhor  and 
the  evil  god  Nyang.  But  it  takes  more  complete  shape 
in  the  old  Indo-European  religions.  In  the  Scan¬ 
dinavian  we  find  Baldur,  the  god  of  light,  and  Loki, 
god  of  darkness,  who  was  father  of  the  goddess  Hel, 
whose  name  meaning  “to  cover,”  or  “conceal,”  has 
been  given  to  the  dark  underworld  of  the  wicked. 
In  the  old  Hindu  religion,  Indra,  the  god  of  the  day, 
struggles  with  Vritra,  the  god  of  night  and  evil  things. 
From  this  may  have  sprung  the  very  ancient  Persian 
belief  in  Ahura-Magda  or  Ormuzd,  the  god  of  light,  who 
wages  ceaseless  war  with  Angra  Mainya,  or  Ahriman, 
the  god  of  darkness.  That  belief,  which  gave  birth  to  a 
noble  creed  urging  men  to  fight  the  evil  and  practise 
the  good,  has  interest  for  us,  because  when  the  Jews 
were  captives  in  Babylon,  the  great  home  of  belief  in 


DUALISM 


I75 


crowds  of  demons,  they  borrowed  the  idea  of  a  Chief 
Spirit  of  evil,  to  whom  the  name  Satan  was  given. 
Before  then  they  believed  that  their  god  Jehovah  sent 
both  good  and  evil,  but  in  the  course  of  time  Satan,  or 
the  Devil,  was  looked  upon  as  a  mighty  power,  wander¬ 
ing  up  and  down  the  earth  “like  a  roaring  lion  seeking 
whom  he  may  devour”  and  employing  crowds  of 
demons  to  tempt  men  to  evil  and  drag  them  down  to 
hell.  And  it  is  only  in  the  last  few  years  that  this 
belief  in  the  devil  and  his  angels,  which  terrified  people 
for  hundreds  of  years,  has  died  out  except  where 
ignorance  and  fear  still  prevail. 


XXX 


MONOTHEISM,  OR  BELIEF  IN  ONE  GOD 

We  come  across  faint  traces  of  what  looks  like  belief 
in  a  High  or  Supreme  God  among  some  savages,  but 
that  name  has  been  given  by  missionaries,  and  is  mis¬ 
leading,  since  it  is  found  to  cover  only  crude  ideas 
about  the  great  powers  of  Nature.  Sometimes  this 
idea  of  One  Great  Spirit  has  been  due  to  missionary 
teaching,  and  then  it  is  difficult  to  separate  native 
beliefs  from  those  which  have  come  from  outside. 

For  example,  it  was  thought  that  the  following 
legend  showed  that  the  Polynesians  had  reached  the 
high  stage  of  Monotheism  in  what  they  said  about 
their  god.  “Taaroa  was.  Taaroa  was  his  name:  he 
dwelt  in  the  void.  No  earth,  no  sky,  no  men.  Taaroa 
calls,  but  nought  answers,  and  alone  existing  he  be¬ 
came  the  universe.  The  props  are  Taaroa,  the  rocks 
are  Taaroa,  the  sands  are  Taaroa;  it  is  thus  he  is  him¬ 
self  named.  He  founded  the  world  as  a  solid  rock, 
which  became  his  wife,  the  foundation  of  all  things, 

who  gave  birth  to  earth  and  sea.”  But  when  it  was 

176 


MONOTHEISM 


177 


discovered  that  the  name  of  the  rock  is  Papa,  the 
Earth,  it  was  clear  that  we  have  in  the  legend  the  old, 
old  story  of  the  great  first  parents  of  all  that  is. 
Heaven  and  Earth.  Here  and  there,  as  among  the 
wisest  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  we  may  listen  to  a  voice 
speaking  of  the  unity  of  God,  but  in  so  far  as  the  world’s 
great  religions  are  concerned,  there  are  only  three 
which  proclaim  that  doctrine — the  Jewish,  Christian 
and  Mohammedan.  The  Jewish  and  the  Mohammedan 
are  more  purely  monotheistic  than  the  Christian,  the 
creed  of  which  is  that  there  are  Three  Gods  in  One. 
As  already  said,  many  centuries  passed  before  the 
Jews  reached  to  that  belief  in  One  God  whom  we  read 
about  in  the  sublime  language  of  some  of  their  prophets, 

Isaiah  the  chief  among  these.  As  they  read  the 

\ 

wonderful  stories  of  what  Yahweh  or  Jehovah  had 
done  for  them,  they  came  to  regard  themselves  as  a 
chosen  people,  a  belief  which  they  have  held  for 
centuries,  and  which  largely  explains  why  they  have 
kept  themselves  apart  from  other  races,  refusing  to 
marry  with  them,  and  even  to  eat  the  same  food  as 
other  people. 

It  was  in  this  belief  in  Jehovah  that  Jesus  Christ, 
who  was  of  Jewish  birth,  was  reared.  But  he  gave  a 
fuller  and  more  beautiful  meaning  to  it  when  he  spoke 


178  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


•of  him  as  All-Father,  because  that  carried  with  it 
the  idea  that  all  mankind  are  his  children.  Some  time 
after  Jesus  died,  he  became,  like  other  great  teachers, 
worshipped  as  a  god,  and  when  his  Gospel,  as  it  is 
called,  spread  in  countries  westwards,  where  Greek¬ 
speaking  Jews  had  settled — chiefly  in  Egypt — it  lost 
its  simple  features  and  became  blended  with  bewildering 
ideas,  the  result  of  which  was  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity;  that  is,  of  a  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  as 
Three  Persons  in  one  God;  a  doctrine  held  in  many 
forms  by  various  nations,  as  shown  in  the  list  at  the 
end  of  this  chapter.  So  important  did  belief  in  the 
Trinity  become  that  those  who  refused  to  accept  it 
were  threatened  in  a  creed  still  read  in  many  Christian 
churches  with  everlasting  punishment  in  hell.  No  one 
would  have  been  more  surprised  than  Jesus  himself  if  he 
could  have  known  that  he  was  to  be  worshipped  as  a 
god;  and  no  one  more  pained  if  he  could  have  known 
that  men  would  fight  and  kill  each  other  over  quarrels 
as  to  whether  he  was  a  god  or  a  man.  But  very  slowly, 
and  after  many  centuries,  the  world  grows  wiser  and 
kindlier,  and  people  are  coming  to  see  that  the  one 
thing  which  matters  is  not  the  creed  that  men  believe, 
but  the  deeds  of  charity  and  mercy  that  they  perform. 

A  simpler  creed  was  proclaimed  six  hundred  years 


MONOTHEISM 


179 


after  the  birth  of  Jesus  by  Mohammed,  who  declared 
that  God  is  one.  With  this  there  was  mixed-up  belief 
in  sinless  angels  and  jinns  or  demons  under  a  chief 
devil,  but  the  same  belief  is  held  by  the  larger  number 
of  Christians,  and  does  not  destroy  the  doctrine  of  the 
Oneness  of  God.  Two  thousand  years  before  Moham¬ 
med,  there  reigned  in  Egypt  a  King  of  great  piety  and 
purity  of  life,  named  Akhnaton,  so  beloved  by  his 
people  that  they  called  him  “Lord  of  the  Breath  of 
Sweetness. ”  Freeing  himself  from  the  power  of  the 
priests,  who  were  angry  because  he  gave  up  belief  in 
animal,  sun  and  weather-gods,  he  founded  a  new  city 
where  he  set  up  the  worship  of  Aton  as  the  One  God. 
He  taught  the  people  to  pray  and  sing  to  that  god  as 
their  Father  in  heaven  and  as  the  Lord  of  Love  and 
Peace.  He  permitted  no  image  of  Aton  to  be  made, 
and  the  sun’s  disc,  which  was  his  symbol,  was  not 
worshipped.  But  because  he  hated  war  and  other 
evils,  he  refused  to  do  battle,  and  in  the  end  lost  his 
kingdom,  and  “there  died  with  him  such  a  spirit  as 
the  world  had  never  seen  before.” 

And  the  priest-led  people  returned  to  their  old  beliefs, 
wherein  is  one  of  many  examples  in  history  that  religion 
is  rarely  entirely  freed  from  the  lower  ideas  whence  it 
sprung. 

N 


180  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

TRINITIES 


Babylonian.  . 

.  Anu 

Bel 

Ea 

(Lord  of  Heaven)  (Lord  of  Earth) 

(Lord  of  the 

underworld) 

Christian .  .  .  . 

Father 

Son 

Holy  Ghost 

*Egyptian.  .  . 

Osiris 

Isis 

Horus 

(Corn — sometimes, 

(his  wife) 

(her  son) 

Sun- God) 

Greek.  . 

.  Zeus 

Poseidon 

Hades 

(Heaven-God) 

(Ocean- God) 

(God  of  the 

underworld) 

Zeus 

Athene 

Apollo 

(Goddess  of 

(Sun-God) 

Wisdom) 

fHindu 

Brahma 

Vishnu 

Siva 

and 

(Creator) 

(Preserver) 

(Destroyer) 

Vedic 

Indra 

Sueya 

Agni 

(Sky- God) 

(Sun- God) 

(Fire- God) 

Roman . 

Jupiter 

Juno 

Minerva 

(Lord  of  Heaven) 

(Queen  of 

(Goddess  of 

• 

Heaven) 

Wisdom) 

Scandinavian 

Odin 

Thor 

Loki 

(All-Father)  (Thunder-God)  (God  of  Evil) 


*  Many  of  the  Egyptian  gods  were  in  triads,  and  some  were 
also  grouped  in  enneads  or  nines.  The  sculptures  of  Horus  in 
the  lap  of  Isis  gave  rise  to  the  Catholic  images  and  pictures  of 
the  Virgin  Mary  and  Jesus.  “Isis  and  Horus  ruled  the  affection 
and  worship  of  Europe  with  a  change  of  names,”  and  they 
largely  rule  it  still. 

f  This  is  sculptured  in  the  Elephanta  caves  at  Bombay  as  three 
heads  springing  from  one  body. 


XXXI 


THREE  STORIES  ABOUT  ABRAHAM 

Abraham,  so  we  learn  from  the  Book  of  Genesis, 
was  a  native  of  the  country  called  Chaldea.  The  clear 
sky  of  that  Eastern  land  invited  the  people  dwelling 
in  it  to  the  study  of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and 
they  not  only  worshipped  these  bodies,  but  sought  to 
foretell  the  fate  of  men  from  them.  An  ancient  histo¬ 
rian  tells  us  that  every  Chaldean  had  a  signet  and 
staff  bearing  the  sign  of  the  planet  or  stars  that  were 
seen  at  his  birth.  Some  have  said  that  Ur,  the  city 
where  Abraham  was  born,  was  a  chief  seat  of  sun- 
worship,  and  that  its  name  means  “light”  or  “fire.” 
Hence  Abraham’s  early  years  were  spent  among  sun- 
worshippers,  and  it  may  interest  you  to  know  that  his 
name  and  memory  are  held  in  high  honour,  not  only  by 
the  Jews,  but  also  by  the  Persians  and  Mohammedans. 
That  he  was  far  from  being  a  perfect  man  is  shown  in 
the  story  of  his  life,  but  the  great  value  of  the  biog¬ 
raphies  in  the  Bible  is  that  they  tell  the  truth. 

Among  the  stories  about  him  which  record  an  old 

181 


182 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


belief  that  he  was  a  monotheist,  and  which  are  pre¬ 
served  in  an  ancient  Jewish  book,  called  the  Talmud, 
are  the  following. 

Terah,  the  father  of  Abraham,  was  a  maker  and  dealer 
in  idols.  Being  obliged  to  go  from  home  one  day,  he 
left  Abraham  in  charge.  An  old  man  came  in  and 
asked  the  price  of  one  of  the  idols.  “Old  man,”  said 
Abraham,  “how  old  art  thou?”  “Three-score  years,” 
answered  the  old  man.  “Threescore  years!”  said 
Abraham,  “and  thou  wouldest  worship  a  thing  that  my 
father’s  slaves  made  in  a  few  hours?  Strange  that  a 
man  of  sixty  should  bow  his  gray  head  to  a  creature 
such  as  that.”  The  man,  crimsoned  with  shame, 
turned  away;  and  then  came  a  grave-looking  woman 
to  bring  an  offering  to  the  gods.  “Give  it  them 
thyself,”  said  Abraham;  “thou  wilt  see  how  greedily 
they  will  eat  it.”  She  did  so.  Abraham  then  took  a 
hammer  and  broke  all  the  idols  except  the  largest,  in 
whose  hands  he  placed  the  hammer.  When  Terah 
returned,  he  asked  angrily  what  profane  wretch  had 
dared  thus  to  abuse  the  gods.  “Why,”  said  Abraham, 
“during  thine  absence  a  woman  brought  yonder  food 
to  the  gods  and  the  younger  ones  began  to  eat.  The 
old  god,  enraged  at  their  boldness,  took  the  hammer 
and  smashed  them.”  “Dost  thou  mock  thy  aged 


THREE  STORIES  ABOUT  ABRAHAM  183 


father?”  said  Terah;  “do  I  not  know  that  they  can 
neither  eat  nor  move?”  “And  yet,”  said  Abraham, 
“thou  worshippest  them,  and  wouldest  have  me  wor¬ 
ship  them  too.”  The  story  adds  that  Terah,  in  his 
rage,  sent  Abraham  to  be  judged  for  his  crime  by  the 
king. 

Nimrod  asked  Abraham:  You  will  not  adore  the 
idols  of  your  father.  Then  pray  to  fire. 

Abraham:  Why  may  I  not  pray  to  water,  which  will 
quench  fire? 

Nimrod:  Be  it  so:  pray  to  water. 

Abraham:  But  why  not  to  the  clouds  which  hold 
the  water? 

Nimrod:  Well,  then,  pray  to  the  clouds. 

Abraham:  Why  not  to  the  wind,  which  drives  the 
clouds  before  it? 

Nimrod:  Then  pray  to  the  wind. 

Abraham:  Be  not  angry,  O  King — I  cannot  pray  to 
the  fire  or  the  water  or  the  clouds  or  the  wind,  but  to 
the  Creator  who  made  them:  him  only  will  I  worship. 

On  another  occasion,  “Abraham  left  a  cave  in  which 
he  had  dwelt  and  stood  on  the  face  of  the  desert. 
And  when  he  saw  the  sun  shining  in  all  its  glory,  he 
was  filled  with  wonder;  and  he  thought,  ‘ Surely  the 
sun  is  God  the  Creator,’  and  he  knelt  down  and 


1 84/  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

worshipped  the  sun.  But  when  evening  came,  the  sun 
went  down  in  the  west,  and  Abraham  said,  cNo,  the 
Author  of  creation  cannot  set.’  Now  the  moon  arose 
in  the  east,  and  the  stars  looked  out  of  the  sky.  Then 
said  Abraham,  ‘This  moon  must  indeed  be  God,  and 
all  the  stars  are  his  host.’  And  kneeling  down  he 
adored  the  moon.  But  the  moon  set  also,  and  from 
the  east  appeared  once  more  the  sun’s  bright  face. 
Then  said  Abraham,  ‘Verily  these  heavenly  bodies  are 
no  gods,  for  they  obey  law;  I  will  worship  him  whose 
laws  they  obey.’” 


XXXII 


GREAT  TEACHERS 

In  an  ancient  writing  whose  rare  beauty  should  have 
given  it  a  place  among  the  books  making  up  the  Bible, 
there  is  a  roll  call  of  the  great  and  worthy  in  Hebrew 
history  which  begins  with  words  I  have  already  quoted: 

“Let  us  now  praise  famous  men  and  our  fathers  that 
begat  us.”  They  are  a  fit  text  to  what  can  only  be 
briefly  told  about  a  few  out  of  the  many  who  have 
appeared  at  different  times  and  in  different  countries, 
chiefly  in  Asia,  moving  their  fellows  by  their  lofty 
teaching  to  live  pure  lives  in  thought  and  deed.  Such 
was  their  power  over  others,  and  so  deep  the  reverence 
and  love  which  they  begat,  that  for  hundreds  of  years 
millions  of  mankind  have  looked  up  to  them  as  their 
saviours,  and,  in  a  few  cases,  have  worshipped  them  as 
gods  made  “in  the  likeness  of  men.” 

Among  the  chief  of  these  were  Gautama  the  Bud¬ 
dha  in  India;  Confucius  in  China;  Zoroaster  in  Persia; 
Jesus  Christ  in  Syria;  and  Mohammed  in  Arabia. 
Their  disciples  treasured  their  sayings,  which  were 

185 


i86 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


handed  on  from  one  generation  to  another,  and, 
in  the  course  of  time,  written  down,  becoming  the 
scriptures  or  sacred  writings  of  the  great  religions. 
So  sacred  are  some  of  these  books  held  to  be  that  it 
was  believed  that  they  were  the  very  words  of  God 
himself.  There  lived  other  men,  before  and  after  those 
just  named,  such  as  the  great  lawgivers  and  prophets 
among  the  Jews,  and  the  great  philosophers  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  and  Chinese;  and  last,  but  not 
least,  those  of  whom  the  high-souled  Pharaoh  Akhnaton 
is  a  type;  numbering  a  host  of  saintly  men  and  women 
who  made  it  their  life’s  aim  to  strive  to  banish  evil 
and  to  inspire  others  to  noble  endeavors.  Their  story, 
which  is  often  one  of  self-sacrifice  unto  death  for  the 
good  of  others,  should  be  read  by  everyone,  especially 
by  young  people,  for  thereby  the  lesson  is  learned  in 
early  years  that  goodness  is  better  than  greatness,  and 
of  more  abiding  worth.  To  say  this  is  not  to  underrate 
the  value  of  deeds  wrought  by  the  heroes  of  every  age 
and  country  who,  in  their  hatred  of  tyranny,  and  of 
the  cruelty  and  wrong  which  it  brings,  have  fought  and 
died  for  holy  causes.  Sometimes  the  freedom  won  for 
the  body  has  made  possible  the  freedom  of  the  mind; 
and  the  battle  against  oppression,  which  alone  justifies 
war,  has  made  easier  the  path  of  the  great  teachers. 


GREAT  TEACHERS 


187 


But  it  is  one  of  the  saddest  things  in  this  world's 
history  that  religion  itself  has  often  been  a  cause  of 
war  and  bloodshed  between  those  who  could  not  agree 
whether  this  or  that  creed  was  true.  And  the  more 
sad  because  we  now  know  that  they  fought  and  per¬ 
secuted  one  another  over  things  which  neither  of  them 
could  prove  to  be  either  true  or  false;  even  about 
things  some  of  which  we  know  are  wholly  false,  and 
often,  as  we  now  see,  too  absurd  to  quarrel  about. 
But,  with  the  growth  of  knowledge,  men  have  come  to 
agreement  that  there  can  be  no  greater  crime  than  to 
imprison  or  kill  anyone  because  he  cannot  or  will  not 
believe  what  we  believe.  Knowledge  has  also  brought 
home  to  us  the  fact  that  the  religion  we  profess  is  due  to 

the  country  in  which  we  live.  If  we  had  been  born  in 

* 

India,  we  should  have  been  Hindoos  or  Mohammedans; 
if  we  had  been  born  in  Burmah  or  Tibet  we  should 
have  been  Buddhists,  and  if  we  had  been  born  .in 
Central  Africa  we  should  have  been  idol  and  fetish 
worshippers  and  something  lower  than  these. 

Religion  is  the  mind’s  complexion, 

Governed  by  birth,  not  self-election; 

And  the  great  mass  of  us  adore 
Just  as  our  fathers  did  before. 


XXXIII 


SACRED  BOOKS 

If  this  book  has  taught  you  nothing  else,  I  hope  you 
have  learned  from  it  that  the  different  beliefs  of  man¬ 
kind  are  worthy  of  attention.  Few  of  us  will  live  here 
for  more  than  sixty  or  seventy  years;  and  when  we  take 
off  the  time  needed  for  eating  and  working  and  sleeping, 
there  is  not  so  very  much  left  wherein  to  learn  a  little 
about  the  world  in  which  we  dwell.  We  do  wisely 
to  use  some  spare  moments  in  asking  how  other  eyes 
have  looked  upon  the  beauty  and  the  mystery  around, 
and  what  it  has  said  to  their  hearts. 

It  is  not  so  very  long  ago  that  good-meaning  men 

looked  upon  the  various  religions  of  the  heathen  world, 

as  it  is  called,  as  wholly  the  work  of  man,  and  if  studied 

at  all,  to  be  studied  as  proofs  of  his  having  been  born 

in  sin,  and  therefore  full  of  hatred  to  whatever  is  good 

and  true.  But  wiser  and  more  *  thoughtful  men  felt 

that  we  ought  to  try  and  understand  these  religions 

and  see  what  kind  of  answers  others,  besides  our  own, 

have  given  to  the  questions  about  God,  how  the  wide 

188 


SACRED  BOOKS 


189 

universe  began,  and  about  life  and  death,  which  we  all 
ask.  These  answers  may  be  feeble  and  dim,  but  since 
they  are  the  best  that  could  be  had,  they  demand  our 
sympathy.  We  do  not  make  our  own  religion  more 
true  by  calling  other  religions  false,  nor  do  we  make  it 
worth  less  to  us  by  admitting  the  good  that  may  be  in 
them.  And  this  is  one  of  the  lessons  taught  by  even 
a  slight  knowledge  of  the  sacred  books  of  other  faiths, 
some  older  than  our  own,  and  still  believed  in  by 
hundreds  of  millions  of  mankind,  who  look  upon  them 
as  the  word  of  God,  and  therefore,  as  dear  to  them  as 
our  Bible  should  be  dear  to  us.  In  them  are  the  pre¬ 
cepts  which  they  have  been  taught  to  obey,  the  prayers 
and  hymns  which  have  the  full  rich  meaning  age  alone 
can  give,  and  which  have  brought  comfort  to  sorrowful 
hearts  that  no  other  scriptures  could  bring.  It  is  true 
that  all  sacred  books  contain  many  fables,  myths, 
legends,  and  coarse  ideas  about  God;  and  from  these 
the  Bible  and  no  other  ancient  books  are  free,  because 
no  other  ideas  were  possible  at  the  time  when  they  were 
written;  and  the  errors  that  they  contain  do  not  make 
less  true  whatever  of  truth  they  hold.  It  is  a  world¬ 
wide  belief  that  words  possess  magic  power  over  both 
gods  and  men,  and  this  explains  why  sacred  books 
and  other  writings  are  used  as  charms  and  fortune 


190  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

tellers.  Verses  from  the  Bible  are  copied  out  on  slips 
and  then  one  of  these  is  chosen  at  random;  or  the 
Bible  itself  is  opened  and  the  verse  which  first  catches 
the  eye  is  taken  as  an  omen  of  what  should  be  done. 
To  discover  a  thief,  a  key  is  hung  from  it  and  swung 
round,  and  when  Psalm  50,  v.  18  is  read,  it  is  believed 
to  turn  to  the  culprit.  On  leaving  the  house,  it  is  a 
Persian  custom  to  recite  a  verse  from  the  Koran,  and 
then  blow  in  the  direction  of  the  four  points  of  the 
compass,  to  chase  away  the  devil,  And  a  story  is  told 
of  a  man  in  Africa  who  was  thought  to  be  very  holy, 
and  who  earned  his  living  by  writing  prayers  on  a 
board,  washing  them  off,  and  selling  the  water. 

Any  account  which  I  give  you  of  the  different 
sacred  writings  would  be  chiefly  a  list  of  very  long 
names,  and  it  is  better  that  I  should  quote  a  few 
passages  from  them. 

I  do  not  include  the  Bible,  because  you  can  read  it 
for  yourselves,  or,  at  least,  such  portions  of  it  as  are 
suited  for  young  people.  For  until  boys  and  girls 
have  reached  their  “teens,”  they  should  read  only 
selected  passages,  of  which,  in  their  beauty  and  in¬ 
structiveness,  there  is  enough  and  to  spare.  The 
reason  of  this  is  that  the  greater  part  of  the  Bible — - 
mainly  because  it  is  an  Eastern  book — is  very  difficult 


SACRED  BOOKS 


191 

to  understand,  and  needs  to  be  explained  in  the  light 
of  the  times  when,  and  the  places  where,  its  various 
contents  were  written.  It  contains  biographies  and 
histories,  all  of  which  are  full  of  myths  and  legends; 
poems,  proverbs,  letters,  and  so  forth,  each  the  work 
of  different  men,  some  of  whom  lived  hundreds  of 
years  apart;  and  who  therefore  could  have  no  knowl¬ 
edge  that  what  they  wrote  would  form  part  of  one 
volume.  The  oldest  writings  date  from  a  time  when 
coarse  and  often  revolting  ideas  prevailed  about  God, 
while  the  later  date  from  a  time  when  those  ideas  had 
given  place  to  purer  and  nobler.  But  what  each  wrote 
is  of  highest  value,  for  they  were  honest  men  and  set 
down  truthfully  all  that  they  heard  and  believed, 
while  much  that  some  of  them  wrote  will  never  be 
surpassed  in  the  beauty  of  its  language  and  the  loft¬ 
iness  of  its  teaching.  And  it  was  a  very  happy  event 
that  the  Bible  was  translated  at  a  time  when  our 
English  language  had  well  nigh  reached  perfection  in 
its  simplicity,  charm,  and  power.  Here  are  two  gems 
that  need  no  setting. 

“And  Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel,  and  they  seemed 
unto  him  but  a  few  days  for  the  love  he  had  to  her.”  (Gene¬ 
sis  xxix,  20.) 

“And  when  the  child  was  grown,  it  fell  on  a  day  that  he  went 
out  to  his  father  to  the  reapers.  And  he  said  unto  his  father, 


192 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


‘My  head,  my  head.’  And  he  said  to  a  lad,  ‘Carry  him  to  his 
mother.’  And  when  he  had  taken  him,  and  brought  him  to  his 
mother,  he  sat  on  her  knees  till  noon,  and  then  died.”  (2 
Kings,  IV,  18-20.) 

But  I  fear  that  it  is  becoming  now-a-days  a  neglected 
book.  One  reason  of  this  is  that  people  have  given  up 
the  old  and  absurd  belief  that  every  word  of  it,  from 
Genesis  to  Revelation,  was  inspired  by  God  himself,  a 
belief  held  by  other  people  about  their  sacred  books, 
as,  for  example,  the  ancient  Jews  about  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament,  and  the  Brahmans  about  the  Vedas.  To 
neglect  the  Bible  for  that  reason  is  to  remain  ignorant 
of  a  large  part  of  the  world’s  history,  and  of  writings 
some  of  which  have  a  place  among  the  immortal  works 
of  the  human  mind. 

Aaid  now  to  a  few  quotations  from  other  Scriptures. 

1.  From  the  Vedas ,  the  sacred  books  of  the  Brah¬ 
mans,  some  of  which  are  nearly  four  thousand  years 
old. 

In  the  beginning  there  arose  the  source  of  golden  light. 

He  was  the  only  born  Lord  of  all  that  is. 

He  stablished  the  earth  and  this  sky;  who  is  the  God  to 
whom  we  shall  offer  our  sacrifice? 

He  who  gives  fife,  He  who  gives  strength;  whose  blessing  all 
the  bright  gods  desire;  whose  shadow  is  immortality;  whose 
shadow  is  death. 

Who  is  the  God  to  whom  we  shall  offer  sacrifice? 


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He  who  through  His  power  is  the  only  King  of  the  breathing 
and  awakening  world;  He  whose  power  these  snowy  mountains 
and  the  sea  and  distant  river  proclaim. 

He  through  whom  the  heaven  was  established — nay,  the 
highest  heaven;  He  who  measured  out  the  light  in  the  air.  .  . 

Let  me  not  yet,  O  Varuna,  enter  into  the  house  of  clay.  Have 
mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy! 

Through  want  of  strength,  have  I  done  wrong.  Have  mercy. 
Almighty,  have  mercy! 

Whenever  we  men,  O  Varuna,  commit  an  offence  before  the 
heavenly  host,  whenever  we  break  the  law  through  thought¬ 
lessness,  have  mercy,  Almighty,  have  mercy! 

Purity  of  body  comes  by  water;  purity  of  mind  by  truthful¬ 
ness.  The  lamp  of  truth  is  a  lamp  of  the  wise. 

Commit  no  wrong,  saying,  “I  am  poor;”  if  you  do,  you  will 
become  poorer  still. 

Let  him  not  do  evil  to  others  who  desires  not  that  sorrows 
should  pursue  himself. 

2.  From  the  Tripitaka;  the  sacred  books  of  the 
Buddhists.  Gautama  the  Buddha  was  born  six  hun¬ 
dred  years  before  Christ. 

Conquer  anger  by  mildness,  evil  by  good,  falsehood  by  truth. 

Be  not  desirous  of  discovering  the  faults  of  others,  but  zeal¬ 
ously  guard  against  your  own. 

He  is  a  more  noble  warrior  who  subdues  himself,  than  he  who 
in  battle  conquers  thousands.  (Compare  with  this  Proverbs 
XVI,  32.) 

To  the  virtuous  all  is  pure.  Therefore  think  not  that  going 
unclothed,  fasting,  or  lying  on  the  ground,  can  make  the  impure 
pure,  for  the  mind  will  still  remain  the  same. 

Reverence  and  humility,  cheerfulness  and  gratitude,  listening 


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THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


in  due  season  to  the  Law — this  is  the  highest  blessing.  Long- 
suffering,  gentleness  of  speech,  sight  of  godly  men,  conversation 
upon  the  Law  in  due  season — this  is  the  highest  blessing.  He 
whose  spirit  is  stirred  not  when  he  is  touched  by  the  stones  of 
the  world,  but  abides  unsorrowing,  undefiled  and  happy — this  is 
the  highest  blessing. 

To  dwell  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  good;  to  fear  the  remem¬ 
brance  of  good  deeds;  to  have  a  soul  filled  with  right  desires; 
these  are  excellencies.  To  be  pure,  temperate,  to  persevere  in 
good  deeds;  these  are  excellencies. 

Buddha  said:  A  man  who  foolishly  does  me  wrong,  I  will 
return  to  him  my  ungrudging  love:  the  more  evil  comes  from 
him,  the  more  good  shall  go  from  me;  the  fragrance  of  these 
.good  deeds  always  redounding  to  me;  the  harm  of  the  slandering 
words  returning  to  him. 

The  gem  of  the  sky  is  the  sun;  the  gem  of  the  house  is  the 
child;  in  the  assembly  shines  the  brow  of  the  wise  man. 

3.  From  the  Zend-Avesta,  the  ancient  Persian  Scrip¬ 
tures  collected  about  three  hundred  years  before  Christ. 

Purity  is  for  man,  next  to  life,  the  greatest  good — that  purity 
is  procured  by  the  law  of. Mazda  to  him  who  cleanses  his  own 
self  with  Good  Thoughts,  Words,  and  Deeds. 

Thou  shouldest  not  become  presumptuous  through  any  happi¬ 
ness  of  the  world,  for  the  happiness  of  the  world  is  such  like  as  a 
cloud  that  comes  on  a  rainy  day,  which  one  does  not  ward  off 
by  any  hill. 

This  I  ask  Thee,  O  Ahaara!  tell  me  aright,  that  I  may  ponder 
these  which  are  thy  revelations,  O  Mazda!  and  the  words  which 
were  asked  of  Thee  by  Thy  Good  Mind  within  us,  and  that 
whereby  we  may  attain,  through  Thine  Order,  to  this  life’s 
perfection.  Yea,  how  may  my  soul  with  joyfulness  increase  in 
goodness? 


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From  a  Hymn  to  the  Sun. 

Thou,  Maker  of  the  Day,  art  most  near  to  the  lustre  of  God. 

Thou  art  a  symbol  of  his  grandeur,  a  beacon  of  his  glory; 

Clothing  the  stars  with  the  garment  of  thy  splendour: 

I  seek  him  whose  shadow  thou  art 

The  Lord  that  giveth  harmony  to  worlds, 

Light  of  Lights! 

That  he  may  illumine  my  soul  with  pure  light. 

Here  are  a  couple  of  sayings  by  two  wise  men  of 
Persia. 

Hafiz  (XIVth  cent.  A.  D.):  The  object  of  all  religions  is 
alike.  All  men  seek  their  beloved,  and  all  the  world  is  love’s 
dwelling;  why  talk  of  a  mosque  or  a  church? 

Faizi  (Xth  cent.  A.  D.):  Whoso  would  carelessly  tread  one 
worm  that  crawls  on  earth,  that  heartless  one  is  darkly  alienate 
from  God,  but  he  who  embraceth  all  things  with  his  love,  to 
dwell  with  him  God  bursts  all  bounds,  above,  below. 

4.  From  the  Koran ,  the  Mohammedan  Bible  (com¬ 
piled  about  the  Vllth  century  A.  D.),  and  the  Sayings 
of  Mohammed: 

Lay  not  burdens  on  any  but  thyself. 

Be  good  to  parents,  and  to  kindred  and  to  orphans,  and  to 
the  poor,  and  to  a  neighbour,  be  he  of  your  own  people  or  a 
stranger,  and  to  a  fellow-traveller,  and  to  the  wayfarer,  and  to 
the  slave. 

Which  is  the  great  name  of  God? 

Tell  me  his  least  name  and  I  will  return  to  thee  his  greatest. 
One  day  of  his  is  equal  to  a  thousand  years  of  man’s.  O  thou 
whose  light  manifests  itself  in  the  vesture  of  the  world!  thy 

o 


196  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


names  are  manifest  in  the  nature  of  man!  thy  knowledge  shows 
itself  in  the  science  of  thy  prophets;  thy  bounty  is  manifest  in 
the  bounty  of  great  hearts.  Recognize  the  mark  of  God  in  every 
place  .  .  .  the  world  is  the  image  of  God.  .  .  .  What! 

shall  not  man’s  heart  repose  in  the  thought  of  God?  They  who 
believe  and  do  the  things  that  be  right,  blessedness  awaiteth 
them.- 

A  man’s  true  wealth  is  the  good  he  has  done  in  this  world. 
When  he  dies,  mortals  will  ask  what  property  has  he  left  behind 
him,  but  angels  will  ask,  what  good  deeds  hast  thou  sent  before 
thee? 

O  my  son,  enjoin  the  right  and  forbid  the  wrong  ...  let 
thy  pace  be  modest,  and  lower  thy  voice,  for  the  least  pleasing 
of  voices  is  surely  the  voice  of  asses. 

Thou,  O  Lord,  art  one  with  Supreme  Wisdom.  .  .  .  Thou 

art  pure,  eternal,  and  very  great;  Thou  art  smaller  than  the 
smallest,  and  greater  than  the  greatest;  Unknown,  all-knowing, 
Thou  art  the  true  one. 

This  world  is  not  for  him  who  doth  not  worship.  Know  that 
the  worship  of  spiritual  wisdom  is  far  better  than  the  worship 
with  offerings  of  things.  There  is  not  anything  to  be  compared 
with  wisdom  for  purity. 

He  whose  heart  is  pure  and  good,  who  looks  on  every  creature 
as  his  friend  and  who  loves  every  soul  as  his  own,  who  wishes 
to  do  good,  and  has  abandoned  vanity — in  his  heart  dwells  the 
Lord  of  life. 

5.  On  the  walls  of  the  old  temples  of  Egypt  hymns 
in  honour  of  the  gods  were  sometimes  written,  and 
this  one  to  Aton,  composed  by  Akhnaton,  recalls  like 
language  in  the  Book  of  Psalms. 

How  manifold  are  all  Thy  works.  .  .  .  Thou  didst  create 


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the  Earth  according  to  Thy  desire— men,  all  cattle,  all  that 
are  upon  the  earth.  .  .  .  Thou  makest  the  seasons.  .  .  . 

Thou  hast  made  the  distant  heaven  in  order  to  rise  therein  .  .  . 
dawning,  shining  afar  off,  and  returning.  The  world  is  in  Thy 
hand,  even  as  Thou  hast  made  them.  When  Thou  hast  risen 
they  live;  when  thou  settest  they  die.  By  Thee  man  liveth. 

Three  thousand  five  hundred  years  before  Christ  a 
great  teacher  of  morals  lived  in  Egypt,  and  under  the 
title  of  the  Instructions  of  Ptah-Hotep  there  is  pre¬ 
served  wise  counsel  as  to  our  duty  one  to  another. 

Let  thy  face  be  bright  what  time  thou  livest.  He  that 
causeth  strife  cometh  himself  to  sorrow.  It  is  a  man’s  kindly 
acts  that  are  remembered  of  him  in  the  years  after  his  life. 

Quarrelling  in  place  of  friendship  is  a  foolish  thing. 

Exalt  not  thy  heart  that  it  be  not  brought  low. 

He  that  is  just  flourisheth;  truth  goeth  in  his  footsteps,  and  he 
maketh  habitations  not  in  the  dwellings  of  covetousness. 

Here  are  a  few  sayings  from  some  famous  men  of 
old.  From  the  Sayings  of  Confucius ,  the  Chinese  sage 
who  lived  in  the  fourth  century  before  Christ. 

Some  one  asked  him,  Should  injury  be  recompensed  with 
kindness?  The  Sage  answered,  With  what  then  will  you  recom¬ 
pense  it?  Recompense  kindness  with  kindness,  and  injury  with 
justice.  Tsze-Kung  asked  him,  Is  there  one  word  that  may 
serve  as  a  rule  for  one’s  whole  life?  Confucius  answered,  Is  not 
Reciprocity  such  a  word?  What  you  do  not  wish  done  to  your¬ 
self,  do  not  to  others. 

To  see  what  is  right,  and  not  to  do  it,  is  want  of  courage. 

Shall  I  tell  you  what  true  knowledge  is?  When  you  know, 


198  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


to  know  that  you  know,  and  when  you  do  not  know,  to  know 
that  you  do  not  know.  Pursue  the  study  of  virtue  as  though 
you  could  never  reach  your  goal,  and  were  afraid  of  losing  the 
ground  already  gained. 

The  real  fault  is  to  have  faults  and  not  try  to  amend  them. 

Homer  (1,000  B.  C.?). 

He  who  hearkens  to  the  voice  of  gods  is  heard  by  them. 
Kindness  is  the  better  part. 

When  men  respect  each  other,  more  are  saved  than  slain. 
Blacker  than  the  gates  of  hell  is  he  who  speaketh  one  thing 
with  his  lips  but  hideth  another  in  his  heart. 

Hesiod  (800  B.  C.?). 

The  man  who  wrongs  another  harms  himself. 

Best  is  that  man  who  thinketh  on  all  things  for  himself,  tak¬ 
ing  heed  to  that  which  shall  be  better  afterwards  and  in  the  end; 
and  good,  too,  is  he  who  hearkeneth  to  good  advice;  but  whoso 
neither  thinketh  himself  nor  layeth  to  heart  the  words  of  an¬ 
other — he  is  a  useless  man. 

Work  is  no  reproach:  the  reproach  is  idleness. 

Pindar  (Vth  Cent.  B.  C.). 

The  road  of  virtue  is  direct  and  leads  to  a  good  end. 

The  days  that  follow  are  the  truest  witnesses  and  time  be¬ 
friends  the  righteous. 

Socrates  (IVth  Cent.  B.  C.)  quoting  an  old  Greek 
proverb. 


Know  Thyself. 


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Plato  (IVth  Cent.  B.  C.)  makes  Socrates  speak  thus: 

While  I  have  life  and  strength,  I  shall  never  cease  from  the 
practice  and  teaching  of  philosophy,  exhorting  any  one  whom 
I  meet  and  saying  to  him  after  my  manner:  You,  my  friend,  are 
you  not  ashamed  of  heaping  up  the  greatest  amount  of  money 
and  honour  and  reputation,  and  caring  so  little  about  wisdom 
and  truth  and  the  greatest  improvement  of  the  soul,  which  you 
never  heed  or  regard  at  all?  And  I  shall  repeat  the  same  words 
to  every  one  I  meet,  young  and  old. 

To  him  who  has  an  eye  to  see,  there  can  be  no  fairer  sight 
than  that  of  a  man  who  combines  moral  beauty  of  soul  with 
outward  beauty  of  form. 

There  can  be  none  so  fair. 

And  you  will  grant  that  what  is  fairest  is  loveliest? 

Undoubtedly  that  is. 

You  should  be  to  others  what  you  think  I  should  be  to  you. 

Heraclitus  (about  Vth  Cent.  B.  C.). 

Eyes  and  ears  are  bad  witnesses  to  men  if  they  have  souls  that 
understand  not  their  language. 

Wisdom  is  one  thing.  It  is  to  know  the  thought  by  which 
all  things  are  steered  through  all  things. 

You  cannot  step  twice  into  the  same  rivers,  for  fresh  waters 
are  ever  flowing  in  upon  you. 

The  waking  have  one  common  world,  but  the  sleeping  turn 
aside  each  into  a  world  of  his  own. 

One  is  ten  thousand  to  me,  if  he  be  the  best. 

Men  pray  to  images,  as  if  one  were  to  talk  with  a  man’s 
house,  knowing  not  what  gods  or  heroes  are. 

They  vainly  purify  themselves  by  defiling  themselves  with 
blood,  just  as  if  one  who  had  slipped  into  the  mud  were  to  wash 
his  feet  in  mud.  Any  man  who  marked  him  doing  thus,  would 
deem  him  mad. 


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THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Empedocles  (about  Vth  Cent.  B.  C.). 

It  is  not  possible  for  us  to  set  God  before  our  eyes,  or  to  lay 
hold  of  him  with  our  hands.  For  he  is  not  furnished  with  a 
human  head  on  his  body,  two  branches  do  not  sprout  from  his 
shoulders,  he  has  no  feet,  no  swift  knees,  but  he  is  only  a  sacred 
and  unutterable  mind  flashing  through  the  whole  world  with 
rapid  thoughts. 

By  Love  do  we  see  Love,  and  Hate  by  grievous  Hate.  If 
supported  on  thy  steadfast  mind,  thou  wilt  contemplate  these 
things  with  good  intent  and  faultless  care,  then  shalt  thou  have 
all  these  things  in  abundance,  and  thou  shalt  gain  many  others 
from  them.  For  these  things  grow  of  themselves  into  thy  heart, 
where  is  each  man’s  true  nature. 

Blessed  is  the  man  who  has  gained  the  riches  of  divine 
wisdom. 

Aristophanes  (IVth  Cent.  B.  C.). 

If  to  my  words  you  give  good  heed 
My  counsel  you  abide, 

A  goodly  chest  and  clearest  skin 
Are  yoyrs  and  shoulders  wide. 

Few  words  will  lie  upon  your  tongue, 

But  sound  you’ll  be  in  limb  and  lung. 

Lucretius  (Roman  poet:  ist  Cent.  B.  C.). 

Sweeter  by  far  on  Wisdom’s  rampired  height 
To  pace  serene  the  porches  of  the  light, 

And  thence  look  down — down  on  the  purblind  herd 

Seeking  and  never  finding  in  the  night 

The  road  to  peace — the  peace  that  all  might  hold, 

But  yet  is  missed  by  young  men  and  by  old, 

Lost  in  the  strife  for  palaces  and  powers, 

The  axes,  and  the  lictors  and  the  gold. 


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Cicero  (a  great  Roman  lawyer,  ist  Cent.  B.  C.). 

My  own  conscience  is  of  more  importance  to  me  than  what 
men  say. 

Nature  ordains  that  a  man  should  wish  the  good  of  every  man, 
whoever  he  may  be,  and  for  this  very  reason — that  he  is  a  man. 

The  worship  of  the  gods  is  the  best  and  the  most  chaste,  the 
holiest  and  the  most  religious,  when  we  reverence  them  ever 
with  purity  and  perfect  innocence  both  of  thought  and  word. 

Seneca  (a  Roman  citizen,  born  at  Cordova,  in  Spain, 
ist  Cent,  after  Christ). 

We  must  live  as  if  we  were  living  in  the  sight  of  all  men; 
we  must  think  as  though  some  one  could  and  can  gaze  into  our 
inmost  breast. 

Even  from  a  comer  it  is  possible  to  spring  up  into  heaven; 
rise,  therefore,  and  form  thyself  into  a  fashion  worthy  of  God. 

You  must  live  for  another  if  you  wish  to  live  for  yourself. 

Would  you  please  the  gods?  Then  be  like  them.  He  wor¬ 
ships  them  enough  who  imitates  them.  (Plato  said,  “He  who 
would  be  dear  to  God  must  be  like  Him,  and  such  as  He  is.”) 

So  live  with  men  as  if  God  saw  you;  so  speak  with  God  as  if 
men  heard  you. 

Epictetus  (a  Greek  freedman  in  Rome,  ist  Cent,  after 
Christ). 

From  your  mind  cast  out  sadness,  fear,  desire,  envy,  avarice, 
intemperance.  But  it  is  only  possible  to  cast  them  out  by  look¬ 
ing  to  God,  by  devotion  to  His  commands.  If  a  man  could 
worthily  realize  that  we  are  all  in  a  special  sense  the  children 
of  God,  and  that  God  is  the  Father  of  both  men  and  gods,  he 
would  think  nothing  mean  or  vulgar  about  himself. 

At  all  times  we  ought  to  praise  the  greatness  of  God.  For 


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THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


what  else  can  I,  a  lame  old  man,  do  than  sing  hymns  to  God? 
If  I  were  a  nightingale,  I  should  act  as  a  nightingale,  and  if  a 
swan,  as  a  swan;  but  since  I  am  a  rational  being,  it  behooves  me 
to  praise  God,  and  I  exhort  you  to  join  in  the  same  song. 

What  ought  not  to  be  done,  do  not  even  think  of  doing. 

When  asked  how  a  man  could  grieve  his  enemy,  Epictetus 
answered,  By  preparing  himself  to  act  in  the  noblest  way. 

Marcus  Aurelius  (Roman  Emperor.  2nd  Cent,  after 
Christ). 

Does  man’s  life  offer  anything  higher  than  justice,  truth,  wis¬ 
dom  and  courage,  in  a  word,  than  the  understanding  at  peace 
with  itself? 

Do  not  live  as  though  you  had  a  thousand  years  before  you. 
The  common  due  impends,  while  you  live,  and  while  you  may, 
be  good.  Love  your  work,  however  humble,  and  find  in  it 
refreshment.  In  the  morning,  when  you  feel  loth  to  rise,  fall 
back  upon  the  thought,  I  am  rising  for  man’s  work.  Why  make 
a  grievance  of  setting  about  that  for  which  I  was  born,  and  for 
sake  of  which  I  have  been  brought  into  the  world? 

Be  like  the  headland  on  which  the  billows  dash  themselves 
continually:  but  it  stands  fast,  till  about  its  base  the  boiling 
breakers  are  lulled  to  rest. 

As  the  horse  that  runs,  the  hound  that  hunts,  the  bee  that 
hives  its  honey,  so  the  man  who  does  the  kindness  does  not 
raise  a  shout,  but  passes  on  to  the  next  act,  as  a  vine  to  the 
bearing  of  clusters  for  next  season. 

Men  exist  for  one  another.  Teach  them  then,  or  bear  with 
them.  Not  to  do  likewise  is  the  best  revenge. 

No  mere  talk  of  what  the  good  man  should  be.  Be  it! 

Sallustius  (IVth  Cent,  after  Christ). 

Virtue  in  the  region  of  Reason  is  Wisdom;  in  the  region  of 


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Fight  is  Courage;  in  the  region  of  Desire  it  is  Temperance;  the 
virtue  of  the  whole  soul  is  Righteousness. 

From  the  Golden  Verses  of  Hierocles  (an  Alexandrian 
Greek,  who  lived  about  the  middle  of  the  Vth 
Cent,  after  Christ). 

Let  not  soft  sleep  come  upon  thy  eyelids  till  thou  has  pon- 
ered  the  deeds  of  the  day:  Wherein  have  I  sinned?  What 
work  have  I  done?  What  left  undone  that  I  was  bound  to  do? 

Beginning  at  the  first,  go  through  even  unto  the  last;  and 
then  let  thy  heart  smite  thee  for  the  evil  deed,  but  rejoice  in  the 
good  work. 

Know  as  far  as  is  permitted  thee,  that  Nature  in  all  things 
is  like  unto  herself,  that  thou  mayest  not  hope  that  of  which 
there  is  no  hope,  nor  be  ignorant  of  that  which  may  be. 

But  do  thou  be  of  good  cheer,  for  they  are  God’s  kindred 
whom  holy  Nature  leadeth  onward,  and  in  due  order  sheweth 
them  all  things. 

Perhaps  more  than  enough  has  been  quoted  from 
these  wise  men  of  old  (and  much  could  be  quoted  from 
many  others)  u pagans,”  as  they  are  called;  a  name 
which  once  was  a  term  of  pity  or  reproach,  but  by 
which  we  now  mean  that  they  were  not  Christians. 
These  brief  sentences  from  their  writings  show  that 
among  civilized  peoples  there  have  never  been  lacking 
those  who  strove  to  lead  others  into  ways  of  happiness 
and  paths  of  peace  and  that,  as  counsel  for  the  right 
conduct  and  best  use  of  life,  these  maxims  of  the  wise 


204 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


who  wrote  thousands  of  years  ago  have  never  been 

_  * 

excelled,  and  remain  true  for  all  time. 

But  I  must  here  make  end,  taking  to  heart  what  one 
of  the  earliest  of  the  Roman  poets  says  about  over¬ 
much  preaching — 

“A  little  moralizing ’s  good — a  little; 

I  like  a  taste,  but  not  a  bath  of  it.” 


XXXIV 


SUMMARY 

Man’s  brain  has  made  him  what  he  is  as  Worker, 
and,  still  more,  as  Thinker. 

In  the  course  of  ages  that  cannot  be  reckoned,  he 
became  more  and  more  human,  until  he  reached  a 
stage  when  he  was  able  to  put  questions  and  frame 
answers  about  his  surroundings.  Believing  these  to  be 
moved  as  he  was  moved  by  what  we  call  spirit,  ever 
a  thing  of  mystery  to  him  as  it  is  to  us,  he  spoke  of 
them  as  alive,  and  hence  all  the  myths  about  them 
which  he  invented  describe  them  acting  as  he  acted, 
only  in  a  more  powerful  and  terrifying  way.  All  through 
his  history  we  find  fear  of  the  unknown  ruling  his  life, 
and  only  as  knowledge  of  things  dispelled  dread  did 
fear  give  place  to  trust. 

In  ignorance,  born  of  fear,  lies  the  source  of  his 

attitude  towards  the  crowd  of  spirits  with  which  his 

imagination  peopled  heavens  and  earth.  Regarding 

them  as  all-powerful  to  help  or  harm  him,  he  devised 

various  ways  of  getting  into  friendly  relation  with 

them,  and  above  all  with  those  on  whom  he  believed 

205 


206  '  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

his  food-supply  to  depend.  Hence  charms,  spells,  sacri¬ 
fices,  and  prayers  and  all  other  modes  of  what  may 
be  included  under  the  word  worship.  And  there  is 
no  dead  or  living  thing,  from  stars  to  spiders,  which 
the  bewildered  mind  of  man  has  not  at  one  time  or 
place  and  another,  made  an  object  of  worship. 

Perhaps  most  widespread  of  all,  is  his  worship  of  the 
departed.  Death  is  not  to  the  savage  a  natural  event, 
and  his  belief  that  the  dead  live  on  was  quickened  by  his 
dreams  in  which  they  appeared,  and  which  to  him  are 
real  events.  Hence,  everywhere,  the  framing  of  notions 
of  a  spirit-filled  world,  and  of  what  goes  on  therein. 

Although  a  belief  in  good  and  evil  spirits,  in  min¬ 
istering  angels  and  demons  survives  among  the  higher 
races,  this  has  taken  a  second  place  wherever  man’s 
ideas  about  the  great  gods  have  advanced.  And  this 
advance  has  been  in  the  degree  that  he  has  risen  from 
the  animal  to  the  highest  human,  and  to  the  percep¬ 
tion  that  goodness  is  better  than  greatness.  Thus  in 
reading  the  sacred  books  of  the  various  religions,  we 
may  trace  man’s  progress  from  belief  in  gods  who 
revel  in  the  blood  of  human  and  animal  sacrifices  to 
an  All-merciful  Being  whom  men  serve  best  in  doing 
justly  and  in  rendering  service  to  others  less  happily 
placed  than  themselves. 


PART  III 


MAN  THE  DISCOVERER  AND  INVENTOR 


XXXV 


MODERN  SCIENCE 

It  was  at  Miletus,  in  Ionia,  on  the  Coast  of  Asia 
Minor,  that,  five  hundred  years  before  Christ,  science 
and  the  freedom  to  say  what  we  think  were  born. 
That  city  was  the  abode  of  a  small  group  of  philos¬ 
ophers  (“  lovers  'of  wisdom,”  as  that  word  means)  who 
were  not  content  to  accept  without  question  the  old 
tales  and  myths  about  the  beginnings  of  things  which 
they  had  been  told.  For  the  Greeks,  like  all  other 
civilized  peoples,  had  passed  through  savage  and 
barbaric  stages,  and  preserved  traces  of  these  in  their 
beliefs,  manners  and  customs.  So  these  wise  men 
started  on  the  quest  after  the  causes  of  things,  whence 
they  began,  and  how  they  came  to  be  what  they  are. 
They  grasped  the  idea  that  the  cosmos  (Greek,  mean¬ 
ing  order ,  and  applied  to  the  universe)  was  derived 
from  a  single  substance.  One  said  that  this  was 
water;  another,  fire;  others,  vapour,  mind,  and  so  on. 
These  were  guesses,  for  such  they  could  only  be  in 
that  far  away  time,  but  they  put  others  on  the  path  of 

enquiry  which  led  to  certainties. 

209 


210 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


The  influence  of  these  Ionians,  some  of  whom 
suffered  persecution  and  death  for  their  opinions  (Lat. 
opinor ,  to  think),  upon  all  after  ages  has  never  waned, 
although  many  centuries  passed  before  its  results  were 
reached.  How  progress  was  stopped  for  well  nigh  a 
thousand  years  in  Europe  is  a  story  too  long  to  be 
told  here,  and  a  few  words  must  suffice  to  speak  of  the 
chief  cause  of  arrest.  Between  three  and  four  hundred 
years  after  the  birth  of  Christ  the  religion  which  bears 
his  name  had  spread  over  a  large  part  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  who  for  fourteen 
hundred  years  has  been  called  the  Pope,  from  Pappas, 
meaning  Father,  had  gained  so  much  power  that  as 
that  Empire  fell  into  decay,  he  became  by  degrees  a 
sort  of  Pope-King,  ruling  both  the  bodies  and  souls  of 
men.  “The  Papacy,”  said  an  old  writer,  “is  no  other 
than  the  ghost  of  the  deceased  Roman  Empire  sitting 
crowned  upon  the  grave  thereof.”  The  Roman  Cath¬ 
olic  Church,  of  which  the  Pope  is  head,  set  up  a  claim 
to  have  been  founded  by  Jesus  Christ,  and  hence 
that  whatever  it  taught  not  only  about  religion,  but 
about  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  everything  else, 
must  be  accepted  as  true.  Those  who  dared  to  deny 
this  were  called  heretics  and  were  imprisoned,  or  put  to 
cruel  death,  and  threatened  with  the  torments  of  hell 


MODERN  SCIENCE  ; 


211 


to  be  suffered  by  them  for  ever  and  ever.  One  of  them, 
named  Bruno,  was  burnt  at  Rome  in  1600  for  saying 
that  the  earth  travels  round  the  sun.  Yet  the  priests 
who  did  these  dreadful  things  were  not  so  much  cruel  as 
misguided.  They  caused  heretics  to  be  put  to  death 
to  prevent  them  from  leading  others  astray  to  the 
peril  of  their  souls;  this  they  honestly  believed.  So  it 
came  to  pass  that  persecution,  even  between  the  various 
sects  of  Christians,  went  on  for  centuries. 

It  is  only  during  the  last  three  hundred  years  that 
the  path  to  freedom  of  enquiry  has  been  opened,  never 
to  be  closed  again.  Now-a-days  we  may  say  aloud  what 
we  think,  and,  so  long  as  no  one  is  thereby  harmed,  act 
upon  it.  But  even  that  freedom  has  been  won  only 
within  the  last  few  years  and  it  is  far  from  being 
universal.  There  are  still  numbers  of  timid  and  igno¬ 
rant  people  who  will  tell  you  that  it  is  wrong  to  doubt 
this  or  that  thing,  and  who,  when  they  hear  anyone 
called  a  “ free-thinker,”  look  on  him  as  one  to  be 
shunned.  Give  no  heed  to  the  talk  of  these  foolish  men 
and  women;  could  such  have  their  way,  the  world  would 
never  progress.  You  for  whom  this  book  is  written  are 
old  enough  to  try  to  find  out  things  for  yourselves  and 
not  to  believe  what  you  are  told  as  true  simply  because 
people  say  that  it  is  so.  But  you  must  keep  your 


212 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


* 


ears  open  to  those  who  have  been  at  great  labour  to 
find  out  the  facts  about  things  by  testing  and  proving 
them,  since  only  a  few  of  us  have  time  or  skill  to  do 
this.  Such  are  those  who  have  made  the  sun  and 
stars,  the  rocks  of  the  earth,  and  living  things,  the 
study  of  many  years,  and  who  are  agreed  in  what 
they  tell  us.  These  learned  men  we  may  wholly  trust. 

This  does  not  apply  to  matters  which  we  are  told 
to  believe,  but  which  cannot  be  tested  or  proved,  such 
as  the  creeds  of  different  religions,  and  what  each  of 
these  tells  us  about  the  spirit  world.  It  is  over  these, 
concerning  which  no  man  can  be  certain,  that  quarrels 
and  persecutions  have  risen,  and  it  is  about  these  that 
we  must  all  maintain,  as  our  most  sacred  right,  freedom 
to  think. 

To  keep  in  mind  the'  difference  between  things  con¬ 
cerning  which  knowledge  is  to  be  had  and  things  which 
must  remain  matters  of  faith,  will  save  us  all  the 
pain  and  loss  of  time  in  unlearning  what  we  might 
otherwise  accept  as  truth,  but  which  may  turn  out  to 
be  error. 

You  will  learn  from  what  is  said  above  that  although 
the  impulse  to  questions  about  the  Universe,  as  we 
call  it  (from  Latin  words  meaning  “turned  into  one”) 


MODERN  SCIENCE 


213 


came  from  Ionia  twenty-four  centuries  ago,  what  we 
really  know  about  it  has  been  found  out  within  the 
last  three  centuries;  and  most  of  this  within  only  the 
last  sixty  years. 

We  must  keep  in  mind  the  difference  between  what 
is  discovered  and  what  is  invented.  To  discover  is  to 
uncover  or  find  anything  for  the  first  time,  as,  for 
example,  that  the  sun  is  a  globe,  or  that  New  Zealand 
is  an  island.  To  invent  is  to  design  and  make  some¬ 
thing  that  did  not  exist  before,  as,  for  example,  steam- 
engines  and  sewing  machines.  Some  discoveries,  as 
that  of  the  sun’s  distance  from  the  earth,  enlarge  our 
knowledge  by  adding  only  to  the  treasures  of  the  mind; 
others,  like  the  discovery  of  America,  are  of  the  deepest 
importance  to  human  progress  in  material  things. 
Some  inventions,  as  of  toys,  add  only  to  amusement, 
while  others,  like  that  of  machinery,  are  of  immense 
value  in  adding  to  the  stock  of  comfort  and  wealth. 
But  without  discovery  there  can  be  no  invention:  if 
the  power  of  steam  had  not  been  found  out,  there 
would  have  been  no  trains  or  steamships.  And  all 
advance  has  been  not  only  by  slow  stages,  but  by 
making  use  of  what  has  gone  before. 

Putting  into  as  few  words  as  I  can  what,  thus  far, 
is  known  about  the  Universe /  it  is  made  up  of  Matter 


214  '  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


and  Motion ,  each  of  which  can  never  be  destroyed, 
while  each  is  always  undergoing  change.  Matter 
exists  in  different  but  always  connected  states;  it  is 
either  solid  or  liquid;  gaseous  or — what  is  the  most 
wonderful  and,  as  yet,  most  mysterious  of  all — ethereal. 
In  an  ethereal  state  matter  is  everywhere  present,  fill¬ 
ing  the  vacant  spaces  between  all  bodies,  and  also  the 
spaces  between  the  particles  of  which  all  bodies  are 
composed;  and  it  transmits  every  kind  of  force.  But  it 
has  never  been  seen  nor  handled  nor  measured. 

Motion  acts  in  a  twofold  way,  i,  pushing  or  drawing 
together  the  particles  of  things,  and  also  all  bodies; 
and  2,  pulling  or  drawing  them  asunder. 

We  know  nothing  about  the  beginnings  of  things; 
nothing  as  to  whence  they  are  or  why  they  are.  We 
can  only  guess  as  to  what  they  are  or  what  they  have 
become,  by  observing  what  they  do.  For  example,  by 
examining  the  nature  and  watching  the  movements 
of  the  various  heavenly  bodies,  astronomers  and 
chemists  are  agreed  that  they  were  formed  from 
nebulous  or  cloud-like  masses  of  matter.  Such  was  the 
beginning  of  our  sun  and  his  system  of  planets,  moons, 
comets,  and  meteors  or  shooting-stars.  He  is  a  star, 
but  not  the  largest  or  the  most  brilliant  of  the  stars 
scattered  in  millions  throughout  space,  most  of  them 


MODERN  SCIENCE 


215 


at  so  vast  a  distance  from  us  that  their  light,  travelling 
at  the  speed  of  nearly  twelve  millions  of  miles  a  minute, 
takes  years  to  reach  us.  That  from  Alpha  Centauri, 
the  nearest,  takes  three  and  a  half  years;  that  from 
Sirius,  the  brightest,  takes  twelve  years.  And  as  the 
sun  and  other  stars  are  made  of  the  same  matter,  and 
are  ruled  by  the  same  laws,  there  being  no  chance  or 
disorder  anywhere,  the  story  of  his  origin  and  that  of 
all  the  smaller  bodies  of  the  stellar  systems  is  to  be 
taken  as  true  of  everything  in  the  universe.  Not  that 
they  are  all  alike,  for  “one  star  differeth  from  another 
star  in  glory,”  some  being  old,  others  middle-aged,  and 
others  new.  But  these  differences  do  not  concern  us 
here,  and  to  explain  them  in  detail  would  only  confuse 
what  I  want  to  keep  clear. 

Untold  millions  of  years  ago,  the  matter  of  which 
the  solar  system  is  composed  existed  in  the  form  of  a 
nebula  spread  over  an  enormous  space.  Its  particles 
were  drawn  slowly  together  by  the  mysterious  force 
called  gravitation  which  binds  all  things  together,  and 
as  they  struck  against  one  another  the  movements 
of  the  whole  nebula  were  quickened;  it  spun  round 
and  round  and  became  broken  up  into  knot-like  white- 
hot  masses.  The  biggest  of  these  was  at  the  centre 
and  became  the  sun,  while  from  the  others,  shot-off  or 


2i  6  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

squeezed-out,  as  it  may  be  said,  from  him,  were  formed 
the  planets  which,  in  their  turn,  shot-off  smaller  masses, 
becoming  moons.  The  comets  and  meteors  were  ex¬ 
pelled  with  such  enormous  force  and  in  such  directions, 
that  they  have  remained  outcast  bodies  ever  since; 
but  revolving  in  fixed  orbits.  As  for  the  planets  which 
are  much  larger  than  the  Earth — Jupiter,  Saturn, 
Uranus  and  Neptune — these  are  still  very  hot,  shining 
by  their  own  light,  and  if  they  should  cool  down  to  a 
state  making  life  possible,  their  vast  distance  from  the 
sun  would  prevent  their  getting  enough  of  his  light 
and  heat  to  maintain  it.  As  for  the  smaller  planets, 
Mercury  and  Venus,  they  are  so  grilled  by  him  that 
only  such  creatures  as  the  fabled  salamander,  which 
was  said  to  be  a  human-like  animal,  living  always  in 
fire,  could  exist  in  them.  We  know  nothing  as  to  what 
goes  on  in  Mars;  but  if  there  are  any  plants  and  an¬ 
imals  there,  they  are  wholly  unlike  any  that  are  known 
on  the  Earth. 

As  one  of  the  smaller  planets,  the  Earth  became  cool 
enough  millions  of  years  ago  to  form  a  solid  rind  or 
crust,  some  of  the  rocks  of  which  are  fire-fused  and 
the  others  water-laid.  As  the  cooling  went  on,  some  of 
the  vapour  in  which  the  Earth  was  swathed  condensed 
into  the  marvellous  and  complex  fluid  called  water, 


MODERN  SCIENCE 


217 


which,  filling  the  cracks  and  hollows  of  the  crust, 
formed  seas  and  oceans.  Other  vapours  or  gases 
formed  the  air  which  Mother  Earth  gives  us  as  “the 
breath  of  life.’7  How  and  when  fife  itself  began  we  do 
not  know;  that  is  one  of  the  many  secrets  about  which 
all  sorts  of  guesses  have  been,  and  are  still,  made. 
But  we  know  that  the  first  life-forms  had  their  begin¬ 
ning  in  water  and  that  they  were  very  simple  in  struc¬ 
ture  and  soft-bodied;  hence  no  traces  of  them  would  be 
left.  Plants  appeared  before  animals,  because  they 
alone  live  and  grow  by  feeding  on  what  we  call  dead 
matter.  Thus  the  Earth  is  the  universal  “  Mother,  ” 

“For  all  men  live  from  birth 
On  what  the  horny  hand  wrings  out 
From  udders  of  the  Earth.” 

When  we  reach  the  rocks  in  which  the  fossil  remains, 
as  they  are  called  (from  Lat.  fossilis,  “dug  out”)?  of 
plants  and  animals  are  found,  their  advance  in  struc¬ 
ture  is  proven.  The  lowest  kinds  are  imbedded  in  the 
deeper  and  older  rocks,  and  the  highest  in  the  upper¬ 
most  and  newer  rocks.  The  Table  following  will  make 
this  clear:  at  the  bottom  is  a  humble  seaweed;  at  the 
top  is  Man  the  Worker,  Thinker  and  Discoverer. 

All  life  on  the  earth  depends  on  the  sun,  and  this 
has  set  men  of  science  calculating  how  long  he  will 


7.  Triassic 


6.  Permian 


S.  Carboniferous 


Primary 

or 

P  ALAEOZOIC 


✓ 

4.  Devonian 


3.  Silurian 


2.  Cambrian 


Archaean 

or 

Eozoic  1.  Pre-Cambrian 


Secondary 

or 

Mesozoic 


8.  Jurassic  or 
Oolitic  . . 


EPOCH  SYSTEM 

Quaternary.  13.  Recent . 

12.  Pliocene . 


Tertiary 

or 

Cainozoic. 


11.  Miocene. 


10.  Eocene  .... 
9.  Cretaceous  . 


Fig.  26. — Table  of  Stratified  Rocks 


Fig.  26.— Table  of  Stratified  Rocks —Continued 


Cave-dwelling  Man. 


Mastodon. 


1.  Univalve. 

2.  Conifer. 

1.  Nummulite. 

2.  Univalve. 

1.  Pearl  Mussel. 

2.  Ammonite,  new  form. 

3.  Bivalve. 

4.  Ammonite,  new  form. 

1.  Bivalve. 

2.  Bivalve. 

3.  Cycad. 

4.  Univalve. 

1.  Fish-lizard. 

2.  Ammonite. 

3.  Sea-lily. 

4.  Footprints  of  Labyrinlhodon. 

1.  Bivalve. 

2.  Lampshell. 

3.  Ganoid. 

1.  Precursors  of  Amphibian. 

2.  Club-moss. 

3.  Horsetail  Plants. 

Ganoid  Fish. 


1,  2,  3.  Lampshells. 
4.  Trilobite. 


(Amphibian). 


Seaweed. 


220 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


last  as  a  heat  and  light-giving  body.  Without  doubt, 
he  will  remain  that  for  millions  of  years,  so  we  need 
not  trouble  about  it,  but  the  question  as  to  whence 
the  sun  gets  his  enormous  power  is  full  of  interest,  and 
it  is  worth  our  while  to  know  what  has  been  lately 
found  out  about  it.  One  of  the  most  marvellous  dis¬ 
coveries,  made  only  fifteen  years  ago,  is  that  of  radium, 
an  element  which  has  the  power  (probably  shared  by 
matter  universally)  of  emitting  rays,  but  at  an  in¬ 
credibly  rapid  speed,  nevertheless,  taking  from  two 

thousand  to  two  thousand  five  hundred  years  to  lose 

« 

one  half  of  its  power.  It  comes  from  another  element 
named  uranium,  the  wonder  about  which  is  that  it 
breaks  down  at  so  slow  a  rate  that  it  does  not  change 
into  radium  for  eight  thousand  millions  years!  And 
as  there  is  uranium  in  the  sun,  whence  we  may  infer 
that  radium  is  also  present  there,  he  has  a  store  on 
which  to  draw  to  keep  him  going  an  infinite  number  of 
years.  The  passage  from  one  element  into  another 
element  is  one  of  many  proofs  that  there  may  be  one 
primitive  stuff  whence  all  the  various  forms  of  matter 
have  come;  showing  that  the  Greeks  of  Ionia  were  on 
the  right  path,  and  that  even  the  old  alchemists  were 
not  wrong  in  thinking  that  one  element  could  be  trans¬ 
muted  or  changed  into  another. 


MODERN  SCIENCE 


221 


I  have  said  that  the  sun  and  planets  and  all  the 
stars  are  made  of  the  same  stuff,  and  the  way  by  which 
this  was  discovered  is  like  a  romance,  except  that,  un¬ 
like  romances,  it  is  every  word  true.  The  instrument 
that  tells  the  story  is  named  the  spectroscope . 

The  lovely  colours  of  the  rainbow  are  due  to  the 
sunbeams,  as  they  strike  the  raindrops,  becoming 
“refracted,”  that  is,  broken  up  into  a  ribbon-like  ray 
of  colours  from  red  to  violet.  The  same  effect  appears 
when  the  beam  falls  on  a  dewdrop,  or  on  a  prism  of 
glass  or  crystal.  Beyond  the  red  rays  there  are  heat 
rays  which  are  felt,  but  not  seen,  and  beyond  the 
violet  rays  there  are  chemical  rays,  also  unseen,  by 
means  of  which  photographs  are  taken.  All  these 
rays,  both  seen  and  unseen,  make  up  what  is  called  a 
“spectrum”  (Lat.  spectrum ,  “an  appearance.”)  More 
than  a  century  ago  this  spectrum,  when  looked  into 
closely,  was  found  to  be  crossed  by  hundreds  of  dark 
lines  (since  increased  to  thousands),  the  positions  of 
which  were  carefully  measured.  But  some  years  passed 
before  their  meaning  was  discovered. 

When  we  sing  a  note  near  a  piano,  it  gives  back  the 
same  sound,  which,  so  to  speak,  it  has  absorbed.  And 
when  an  element  from  the  sun’s  hot  interior  passes 
through  his  vaporous  atmosphere,  a  dark  line  appears, 


22  2  '  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


because  the  atmosphere  has  absorbed  the  element. 
Light  thus  answers  to  light,  as  sound  answers  to  sound: 
both  are  due  to  wave-like  motion;  sound  to  air- waves, 
and  light  to  ether-waves.  The  lines  are  not  really 
dark,  but  appear  so  only  because  they  are  overpowered 
by  the  brightness  of  their  surroundings.  It  was  al¬ 
ready  known  that  when  sodium,  hydrogen,  and  other 
elementary  substances  are  made  white  hot,  they  show 
coloured  lines  whose  position  never  changes,  and  that 
when  they  are  heated  to  a  gaseous  or  vaporous  state 
those  lines  appear  black.  So  the  next  step  was  to  put 
them  in  such  a  position  with  the  lines  in  the  sun’s 
spectrum  that  they  could  be  compared,  and  the  result 
was  to  show  that  they  fitted  in,  one  above  the  other, 
exactly.  Hence  is  proved  the  existence  of  sodium, 
hydrogen,  magnesium,  iron  (which  has  nearly  five 
hundred  lines),  copper  and  other  elements  in  a  gaseous 
state  in  the  sun’s  atmosphere.  And  with  such  differ¬ 
ences  as,  from  their  spectra,  we  know  exist  between 
them,  it  is  the  same  with  the  stars:  they  and  the  sun, 
broadly  speaking,  are  made  of  like  matter,  while  so 
delicate  are  the  instruments  which  astronomers  have 
invented  that  they  are  able  to  tell  by  the  slight  shifting 
of  the  lines  in  the  spectra  of  stars  whether  these  far- 
distant  bodies  are  coming  nearer,  or  travelling  away 


MODERN  SCIENCE 


223 

from,  the  Earth.  Then,  by  putting  what  is  called  a 
dry  plate  in  the  telescope  so  that  the_  two  revolve 
together,  and  leaving  it  there  for  some  hours,  the 
images  of  numberless  stars  that  the  eye  cannot  see 
are  photographed  on  the  plate. 

Wonderful  too,  as  “  seeing  the  invisible/’  is  the 
discovery  of  certain  rays  produced  by  electrical  currents 
sent  through  vacuum  tubes  by  which  our  bones  can 
be  seen  through  the  flesh.  And  if  a  bullet  or  needle 
be  lodged  in  the  body,  these  X  rays,  as  they  are  named, 
will  show  where  they  are,  so  that  the  surgeon  can  ex¬ 
tract  them.  Then  there  are  the  wonders  of  the  tele¬ 
graph.  Electric  batteries  and  wires  are  used  to  carry 
messages  round  the  world  in  a  few  seconds;  while  still 
more  wonderful,  is  telegraphing  without  wires ;  the  space¬ 
filling  ether,  which  is  moved  in  all  directions  by  electric 
waves,  taking  the  place  of  the  wires.  In  speaking 
through  the  telephone  our  voice  does  not  travel,  but 
is  reproduced  by  means  of  a  disc  in  motion  at  one  end, 
the  electric  current  setting  up  the  same  vibrations  on  a 
disc  at  the  other  end.  In  the  still  more  marvellous 
phonograph  we  speak  into  a  tube  closed  in  with  a  thin 
metal  disc  to  which  is  attached  a  steel  point  moving 
backwards  and  forwards,  and  making,  as  we  talk  or 
sing  into  the  instrument,  a  number  of  small  marks  on 


224  '  THE  childhood  of  the  world 

a  cylinder  of  hard  wax  which  turns  and  travels  so 
that  the  marks  can  never  be  entangled  one  with  an¬ 
other.  When  the  cylinder  is  put  back  to  its  starting 
point,  whatever  was  said  or  sung  is  reproduced,  as  we 
saw  in  the  example  of  the  piano  returning  the  note 
sung  by  anyone  near  it.  And  as  the  cylinders  last 
many  years,  the  voices  of  people  long  dead  are  thus 
marvellously  reproduced  by  the  gramophone.  The 
“ living  pictures”  shown  by  the  cinematograph  are 
obtained  by  taking  the  photographs  at  so  rapid  a  rate 
every  second  as  to  secure  the  effect  of  real  life  and  real 
motion. 

But  to  tell  of  all  that  man  has  discovered  and  in¬ 
vented  would  fill  a  big  book,  and  I  can  find  room  for 
only  another  example  which  is  too  striking  to  be  left 
out. 

Although  it  is  more  than  a  hundred  years  since  steam 
power  was  brought  into  use  to  propel  ships  and  car¬ 
riages,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  until  then  no  prog¬ 
ress  in  the  means  of  getting  from  one  place  to  another 
had  been  made  since  the  immensely  far-off  times  when 
man  yoked  the  oxen  and  rode  or  drove  the  horse.  So 
novel  was  the  idea  of  railroads  and  steamers,  that  only 
ninety  years  ago,  clever  people  laughed  at  it,  and  re¬ 
fused  “to  trust  themselves  to  such  machines  going  at 


MODERN  SCIENCE 


225 


such  a  rate.”  Whereby  hangs  the  lesson  not  to  rashly 
pronounce  judgments  upon  what  is  new.  As  for  aero¬ 
planes  and  water  planes,  these  may  one  day  be  made 
so  perfect  that  people  may  travel  through  the  air 
without  risk. 

The  story  of  discovery  of  the  oneness  of  living  things; 
of  man’s  place  among  animals;  of  his  great  age  on  the 
earth;  and  of  the  ways  in  which  the  higher  races  of 
mankind  advanced  from  savage  to  civilized  stages; 
has  been  told  in  the  earlier  chapters  of  this  little  book. 
These  discoveries  are  for  each  one  of  us  the  most  im¬ 
portant  that  have  ever  been  made,  because  they  bear 
upon  all  the  thoughts  and  acts  whereby  our  life  is 
shaped  for  good  or  evil. 


» 


\ 

■ 


XXXVI 


CONCLUSION 

I  hope  that  you  will  learn  from  the  foregoing  that 
the  facts  of  science  are  not,  as  some  think,  dry,  lifeless 
things.  They  are  living  things,  filling  with  sweetest 
poetry  the  ear  that  listens  to  them,  and  with  fadeless 
harmony  of  colours  the  eye  that  looks  upon  them. 

They  not  only  give  us  these  higher  pleasures  which 
endure,  but  they  bring  daily  bread  and  health  and 
comfort  to  thousands,  who  but  for  knowledge  of  them 
would  have  lived  pitiful  lives. 

I  am  offering  you  good  counsel  in  advising  you  to 
use  a  certain  portion  of  your  time  in  studying  one 
branch  of  science.  It  matters  not  which  you  choose 
so  far  as  wonder,  beauty,  and  truth  are  concerned,  for 
astronomy,  chemistry,  geology,  plant  and  animal  life, 
alike  possess  these  in  such  abundance  that  the  years 
will  be  too  short  to  exhaust  them. 

With  the  mind  thus  stored,  many  an  hour,  otherwise 
dull,  will  be  “filled  with  music;”  many  a  star-lit  night, 

otherwise  unheeded,  will  shine  with  familiar  lights; 

226 


CONCLUSION 


227 


many  a  landscape,  bald  and  ugly  to  the  unseeing  eye, 
marked  with  lines  of  beauty  hitherto  invisible.  And 
if,  as  I  think  this  story  shows,  man’s  progress  largely 
depends  upon  himself,  how  careful  should  we  be  to  do 
nothing  that  will  be  a  hindrance.  Our  knowledge  is  no 
blessing  to  us,  unless  we  have  learned  to  use  it  well 
and  wisely,  and  learned  too  that,  with  it  only,  life 
is  not  complete. 

But  all  this  was  said  hundreds  of  years  ago  in  lan¬ 
guage  whose  truth  and  beauty  I  have  no  power  to 
approach: 

Receive  my  instruction  and  not  silver,  and  knowledge 

RATHER  THAN  CHOICE  GOLD.  PROVERBS,  VIII,  IO. 

Happy  is  the  man  that  findeth  wisdom  and  the  man  that 

GETTETH  UNDERSTANDING.  Ill,  13. 

She  is  more  precious  than  rubies,  and  all  the  things 

THOU  CANST  DESIRE  ARE  NOT  TO  BE  COMPARED  UNTO  HER.  Ill, 

15- 

Her  ways  are  ways  of  pleasantness,  and  all  her  paths 

ARE  PEACE.  Ill,  17. 


SELECTED  BOOKS  ON  THE  SUBJECTS  TREATED  IN 

THIS  WORK 


Chapters  ii  and  iii 


Anthropology.  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor  (Macmillan,  7/6). 

Ancient  Types  of  Man.  Dr.  A.  Keith  (Harpers,  2/6). 

Descent  of  Man.  C.  Darwin  (Murray,  2/6). 

Man’s  Place  in  Nature.  Prof.  Huxley  (Macmillan,  1/). 

Man  and  His  Forerunners.  Dr.  Buttel-Reepen  (Longmans, 
2/6). 

Prehistoric  Man.  Dr.  Duckworth  (Cambridge  University 
Press,  1/). 

Story  of  Primitive  Man.  Edward  Clodd  (Hodder  and  Stough¬ 
ton,  if). 


Chapter  iv 


Man,  Past  and  Present.  Prof.  A.  H.  Keane  (Cambridge  Uni 
versity  Press,  7/6). 


Wanderings  of  Peoples.  Dr.  A.  C.  Haddon  (Cambridge  Uni¬ 
versity  Press,  if). 


Chapters  v-viii 


Anthropology.  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor. 

Ancient  Hunters.  Prof.  Sollas  (Macmillan,  12/). 

Early  Man  in  Britain.  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins  (out  of  print). 
Man  before  Metals.  N.  Joly  (Kegan  Paul  &  Co.,  5/). 

Origin  of  Civilization.  Lord  Avebury  (Longmans,  7/6). 
Prehistoric  Times.  Lord  Avebury  (Williams  &  Norgate,  10/6) 
Rough  Stone  Monuments.  T.  E.  Peet  (Harpers,  2/6). 


228 


SELECTED  BOOKS 


229 


Chapter  ix 

Human  Speech.  N.  C.  Macnamara  (Kegan  Paul  &  Co.,  5/). 
Outlines  of  English  Accidence.  Dr.  Morris  (Macmillan,  6/). 
Romance  of  Words.  E.  Weekley  (Murray,  3/6). 

Study  of  Words.  Abp.  Trench  (Routledge,  2/6). 

Chapter  x 

Early  History  of  Mankind.  Chapter  5,  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor  (Mur¬ 
ray,  12/). 

Origin  of  Civilization.  Chapter  2,  Lord  Avebury. 

Story  of  the  Alphabet.  Edward  Clodd  (Hodder  &  Stough¬ 
ton,  1/). 

Chapters  xi  and  xii 

Adonis ,  Attis,  Osiris.  J.  G.  Frazer  (Macmillan,  10/). 
Anthropology.  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor. 

Ancient  Art  and  Ritual.  Jane  E.  Harrison  (Williams  &  Nor- 
gate,  if). 

Chapters  xvii-xxii 

Animism.  Edward  Clodd  (Constable,  1/). 

Childhood  of  Religions.  Chapter  2  on  Creation  Legends.  Ed¬ 
ward  Clodd  (Kegan  Paul,  1/6). 

Myths  and  Dreams.  Edward  Clodd  (Chatto  &  Windus,  3/6). 
Primitive  Culture.  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor,  2  vols.,  (Murray,  21/). 
Primitive  Traits  in  Religious  Revivals.  Prof.  Davenport  (The 
Macmillan  Co.,  6/6). 

Chapter  xxiii 

Asiatic  Studies.  Sir  A.  C.  Lyall,  2  vols.  (Murray,  10/). 
Orpheus ,  a  General  History  of  Religions.  S.  Reinach  (Heine- 
mann,  8/6). 

Origins  of  Religion.  Andrew  Lang  (Watts  &  Co.,  if). 


230 


* 


THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 


Chapter  xxiv 

Greek  Divination.  W.  R.  Halliday  (Macmillan,  5/). 

Magic  and  Fetichism.  A.  C.  Haddon  (Constable,  if). 

Chapter  xxvi 

Magic ,  Divination  and  Demonology.  Dr.  Witton  Davis  (James 
Clarke  &  Co.,  3/6). 

Primitive  Culture.  Chapter  18. 

Semitic  Magic.  R.  C.  Thompson  (Luzac  &  Co.,  10/6). 

Tom  Tit  Tot.  Edward  Clodd  (Duckworth  &  Co.,  out  of  print). 
(Name  superstitions.) 

Chapter  xxvii 

Adonis ,  Attis,  Osiris.  Prof.  J.  G.  Frazer  (Macmillan,  10/). 
Animism.  Edward  Clodd. 

Belief  in  Immortality.  Prof.  J.  G.  Frazer  (Macmillan,  10/). 
Belief  in  Personal  Immortality.  E.  S.  P.  Haynes  (Watts,  if). 
Primitive  Culture.  Sir  E.  B.  Tylor. 

Primitive  Superstitions.  R.  M.  Dorman  (Lippincott  &  Co.) 
Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples.  Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton  (Putnams) 
(On  tree  and  •allied  forms  of  nature-worship  Dr.  Frazer’s 
great  work  The  Golden  Bough  is  an  indispensable  book). 

Chapters  xxviii-xxx 

Evolution  of  Religion.  L.  R.  Farnell  (Williams  &  Norgate,  5/). 
Primitive  Cidture.  Chapters  16,  17. 

Threshold  of  Religion.  R.  R.  Marett  (Methuen,  3/6). 

Chapter  xxxii 

Asia  and  Europe.  Chapter  on  “The  Great  Arabian.”  Meredith 
Townsend.  (Constable,  12/6). 


SELECTED  BOOKS 


231 


Buddhism.  Prof.  T.  W.  Rhys  Davids  (Socy.  for  Promoting 
Christian  Knowledge,  2/6). 

Hinduism.  L.  D.  Barnett  (Constable,  1  /). 

Islam.  Ameer  Ali  Syed  (Constable,  if). 

Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Edward  Clodd  (Kegan  Paul,  1/6).  Watts 
&  Co.  (cheap  reprint  1  /).. 

Myth,  Magic  and  Morals.  F.  C.  Conybeare  (Watts  &  Co.,  6/). 

Chapters  xxxih-xxxiv 

Passages  from  the  Bible.  J.  G.  Frazer  (A.  &  C.  Black,  3/6). 

The  Instruction  of  Ptah-Hotep.  if  Wisdom  of  the  East  Series 
(John  Murray). 

The  Sayings  of  Confucius.  2/.  Wisdom  of  the  East  Series 
(John  Murray). 

The  Teachings  of  Zoroaster.  2/.  Wisdom  of  the  East  Series 
(John  Murray). 

Buddhist  Scriptures;  a  Selection.  2j.  Wisdom  of  the  East  Series 
(John  Murray). 


Chapter  xxxv 

Class  Book  of  Geology.  Sir  A.  Geikie  (Macmillan,  5/). 

Growth  of  a  Planet.  E.  S.  Grew  (Methuen,  6/). 

Astronomy  of  To-day.  C.  G.  Dolmage  (Seeley  &  Co.,  5/). 
History  of  Freedom  of  Thought.  Prof.  J.  B.  Bury.  (Williams 
&  Norgate,  1/). 

Holy  Christian  Church.  R.  M.  Johnston  (Constable,  5/6). 
Pioneers  of  Evolution.  Edward  Clodd  (Watts,  if  cheap 
reprint) . 

Rise  and  Progress  of  Rationalism  in  Europe.  W.  E.  FI.  Lecky 
(Longmans,  2/6). 

Short  History  of  Free  Thought.  J.  M.  Robertson,  2  vols. 
(Watts,  12/). 

The  Elements.  Sir  W.  A.  Tilden  (Harpers,  2/6). 


232  .  THE  CHILDHOOD  OF  THE  WORLD 

The  Wonderful  Century.  A.  R.  Wallace  (Swan,  Sonneschein 
&  Co.,  6/). 

Warfare  of  Science  and  Theology.  A.  D.  White,  2  vols.  (Mac¬ 
millan,  21/). 


N* 


INDEX 


A 

Abraham,  59,  181-184 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  166 
Age,  New  Stone,  23,  43,  49,  50, 
52,  112 

of  Bronze,  48,  51,  52 

of  Iron,  51 

of  Metals,  23,  46 

Old  Stone,  7,  23,  39,  41,  43, 

49,  52 
Agni,  129 

Akhnaton,  179,  186,  196 
Alphabet,  66 
Alpha  Centauri,  215 
America,  16,  17,  23,  121,  213 
American  races,  25 
Ancestor,  common,  of  Man  and 
Apes,  13 

Ancestor- worship,  166 
Angels,  137 

Animals,  domestication  of,  54 
punishment  of,  as  criminals, 
140 

worship  of,  137 
Ant,  social,  28 
worker,  4 

Anthropomorphism,  171,  172 
Ape-like  skulls,  16 


Apes  and  men,  n,  21 
Arabic,  64 
Aristophanes,  200 
Arrowheads,  43,  112,  125 
Art,  primitive,  36-38 
Articulate  speech,  60,  90 
Aryan,  64 
Astrology,  136 
Athos,  Mt.,  1 51 
Aton,  135,  179,  196 
Australian  natives,  26,  66 
Axes,  Stone,  44 

B 

Baptism,  125 
Barter,  59 
Bee,  28 

Beltane  fire,  130 
Bible,  190 

a  magical  use  of,  190 
Blackfeet  Indians,  134 
Blood  of  Man,  of  Apes  and  of 
Monkeys,  13 
Body,  burial  of,  169 
Borneo,  n 
Brain  of  Man,  95 
Breath,  160 
Bridget,  50,  129 


233 


236 


0 


INDEX 


Heaven,  119 
Heaven-Father,  no 
Hebrew,  63,  136,  140,  172 
Hell,  108,  174 
Heraclitus,  199 
Heresy,  171,  210 
Herodotus,  136 
Hesiod,  198 
Hestia,  128 
Hiawatha ,  76 
Hierocles,  203 
Hippopotamus,  50 
Holy  fire,  128 
wells,  124 
Homer,  198 
Horse,  22,  36,  51 
Houses,  primitive,  31 
Human  sacrifice,  157,  206 
Humours,  no 
Husbandman,  55 
Hyenas,  15,  22,  41 

I 

Ice  Ages,  22,  49  * 

Idols,  153 

Indian  grave-post,  67 
love  song,  68 
petition,  70 
war  song,  69 
Invention,  213 
Ionia,  209,  218 
Iron,  48 
Age  of,  51 

Early  and  Later  Age  of,  52 


J 

Java,  15 

Jehovah,  128,  129,  170,  177 
Jerusalem,  129 

Jesus  Christ,  177,  180,  185,  210 
relics  of,  167 
Judges,  Book  of,  172 
Jupiter,  127,  128,  1 51 

K 

Kalevala,  76 
Kaprina,  27 
Kings  as  divine,  152 
Kings,  Book  of,  192 
Kitchen-middens,  33 
Koran,  64,  190,  195 

L 

Lake-dwellings,  31,  34,  48,  51 
Language,  60 
Latin,  64 
Lead,  48 

Life,  struggle  for,  27 
Liver  as  seat  of  soul,  149 
Living  things,  multiplication  of, 

27 

Lot’s  wife,  127 
Lucky-stones,  127 
Lucretius,  200 

M 

Magic,  80,  126,  146,  166,  189 
black  and  white,  147 
sympathetic,  80,  126 


INDEX 


2  37 


Mammals,  n 

Mammoth,  18, 19,  22,  36,  41,  50 
Man- worship,  145,  152 
Man  and  apes,  n,  21 
antiquity  of,  20,  52 
as  flesh-feeder,  22,  26 
as  plant-feeder,  22,  26 
brain  of,  95 
origin  of  name,  96 
primitive  home  of,  16,  20 
skulls  of  primitive,  15,  16 
wanderings  of,  23 
worship  of,  145 
Marcus  Aurelius,  202 
Matter,  214 
May-Day,  123,  143 
Measuring,  74 
Medicine-man,  146 
Mediterranean,  17 
Metals,  23,  46 
Miletus,  209 
Milk,  sacred,  140 
Mind  and  brain,  95 
Mississippi,  20 
Mithra,  135 
Mohammed,  179,  185 
Mohammedans,  126,  177 
Monex,  59 
Mongolian,  24 
Monkeys,  13 
Monotheism,  176 
Moon  changes,  132,  134 
Moon  myths,  113 
worship,  133 


Morals,  100 
Moravia,  23 
Mosaic  books,  62 
Motion,  214 
Mountain- worship,  128 
Muses,  62 

Myths:  Chapters  XIX-XXII 
N 

Name,  magic  in,  147 
Nature,  103 

worship  of,  i2off. 

Nebula,  214,  215 
Need-fire,  130 
Negro,  24,  25 
Nerve-cells,  96 

New  Stone  Age,  23,  43,  49,  50, 
52,  112 
Nomad,  54 

Nuns  as  sacred  fire-keepers,  1 29 

O 

Odin,  128 

Old  Stone  Age,  7,  23,  39,  41,  43, 
49,  52 

Old  Testament,  63,  172 
Orang-utan,  n,  23 
Ornaments,  savage,  47 

P 

Pantheon,  171 
Pantomime,  62 
Papyrus,  49 


238 


0 


INDEX 


Parsees,  63 
Peruvians,  125 
Phonograph,  221 
Piano,  77 

Picture-writings,  66ff. 

Pictures,  prehistoric,  15,  35#. 

Piltdown  skull,  16 

Pindor,  198 

Planets,  119,  132,  216 

Plato,  199 

Pleiades,  118 

Plough,  55 

Polynesians,  176 

Polytheism,  170 

Pope,  the,  210 

Pottery,  30 

Prayer,  157 

Prehistoric  time,  7 

Primitive  guessing,  97 

Printing,  71 

Ptah-Hotep ,  197 

R 

♦ 

Radium,  218 
Rain-charm,  80 
Rainbow,  219 
R.attlesnake,  139 
Reindeer,  50 
Relics,  167 

Religion,  origin  of,  99 
Religious  wars,  187 
River,  Sacred,  125 
Rocks,  thickness  of,  16 
table  of,  217 


Roman  Catholics,  166,  210 
Rome,  snake-worship  in,  139 

S 

Sacred  books,  63,  i88ff. 
Sacrifices,  122,  125,  134,  156, 
163,  206 
Sailor,  56 
Sallustius,  202 
Samuel,  Book  of,  79,  80 
Sanskrit,  63 
St.  Paul,  166 
Satan,  175 
Savages,  6 
skill  of,  53 

confused  ideas  of,  97 
Sea-gods,  125 
Seneca,  201 
Serpent-worship,  138 
Seville,  79 
Shelter,  31 
Shepherds,  54 
Silver,  48 
Ship,  56 

Shooting-stars,  126,  137,  216 
.  Signs,  writing,  71 
Sirius,  215 

Skeletons  of  Man  and  Apes,  1 2 
of  Man,  15 

Skulls  of  primitive  man,  15,  16 
Snake-worship,  138 
Sneezing,  161 
Socrates,  198 

Solomon,  Proverbs  of,  159,  225 


INDEX 


239 


Song,  76 
Soul,  160 
catching,  162 
Sounds,  words  from,  61 
Spectroscope,  219 
Spirits,  belief  in,  104 
Stages  of  culture,  52 
Stalagmite,  18 
Standing  stones,  45,  127 
Star-myths,  117 
Star  distances,  215 
spectrum,  220 

Stone  Age,  New,  23,  43,  49,  52, 
112 

Stone  Age,  Old,  7,  23,  39,  41, 

43)  49,  52 
Stone- worship,  125 
Stonehenge,  45 
Strata ,  16 

Struggle  for  life,  27 
Sumatra,  n 
Sunday,  101 
Sun,  duration  of,  218 
elements  in,  120 
origin  of,  215 
Sun  myths,  113 
Sun-worship,  130,  134 
Sympathetic  magic,  80,  126 

T 

Taboo,  150 
Talmud,  13 1,  182 
Tattooing,  47 
Telegraphy,  221 


Telephone,  221 
Temple,  144 
Terminus,  127,  151 
Tertiary  Age,  22 
Theatre,  81 
Thumb,  11 

Thunderbolts,  112,  126 
Tin,  48 

Tools,  primitive,  15,  18,  41 
Totemism,  104,  140 
Transmigration,  165 
Travel,  222 
Tree  myths,  143 
worship,  141 
Trees,  dwellings  in,  31 
Trinity,  178 
Trinities,  180 
Tripitaka,  193 

U 

Union  is  strength,  28 
Universe,  209,  212,  213 
Uranium,  218 

V 

Vedas,  63,  192 
Vedda  cave-dweller,  6 
Vesta,  128 

Virgin  fire-keepers,  1 29 
Virgin  Mary,  155,  180 

W 

War,  56,  86 
dance,  79 
Warmth,  28 


240 


INDEX 


Water,  action  of,  16,  20,  216 
worship,  124 

Weapons,  primitive,  15,  22 
Week-days,  133 
Wells,  holy,  124 
Wheat,  51 

Wireless  telegraphy,  221 

Witches,  125,  148 

Women,  pictures  of  primitive, 

38 

Words,  value  of,  59,  61 
World  Life-Trees,  143 
Worship,  nature,  i2off. 

Writing,  66 


X 

Xenophanes,  171 
X  rays,  221 


Y 


Yggdrasil,  144 


Z 

Zend,  63 
Avesta,  194 
Zoroaster,  185 
Zulus,  1 18 


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